


It Runs in the Family

by mismatched_ideas



Series: You're a Song [3]
Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Aged-Down Character(s), Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Family, Alternate Universe - Magic, Angst, Anxiety, Family Fluff, Fighting, Fluff, M/M, Other, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-06-19
Updated: 2019-09-02
Packaged: 2020-03-29 21:54:24
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 23,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19028689
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mismatched_ideas/pseuds/mismatched_ideas
Summary: Everyone has a family, whether they're blood-related or not, and a lot of things connect people to their families.





	1. Home

**Author's Note:**

> I have edited this the best I can, but I have very little time and a lot less energy right now, so please forgive my mistakes.
> 
> Also, for reference in chapter 1, here is a chart of my [basic notes on charms](https://ko-fi.com/i/IR6R8RCQP) in this AU

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Even now, Akaashi had trouble understanding what home really meant. But he knew that whatever it meant, he would protect it with his whole being.

Bokuto had been moping all day and Akaashi hated having to pretend he didn’t notice. The problem was, somehow nobody had foreseen Bokuto getting grumpy because everyone was ‘busy’ on his birthday other than Akaashi and Shouyou.

_To Group — Bokuto’s Birthday: We need to have the party earlier._

_From Kuroo Tetsurou: Is Bo getting whiney already?_

_To Group — Bokuto’s Birthday: You did all tell him you were too busy to hang out on his birthday._

_From Konoha Akinori: He has his family! Tell him to stop being a mope_

_To Group — Bokuto’s Birthday: It’s his birthday._

_From Oikawa Tooru: Get into something sexy, that usually works when Iwa-chan is being grumpy~~~_

_From Iwaizumi Hajime: Shut up asshole_

_From Sugawara Koushi: Come on guys we need to help Akaashi-kun_

_To Group — Bokuto’s Birthday: I don’t think I want your help anymore. And Oikawa-kun, please don’t say things like that with my family in the chat._

_From Oikawa Tooru: Oops ;D_

Akaashi put his phone away, deciding none of them were going to be any help. Instead, he turned to look at Shouyou–he’d turned two only a few months ago and was already starting to get used to walking and then running. He’d gotten a real grasp on running and Akaashi was worried that soon neither he nor Bokuto would be able to catch Shouyou.

“Kou, Shou-chan, how about we go get some ice cream?” Akaashi asked.

“Ice cream?” Shouyou turned to look at Akaashi before turning to run into the other room where Bokuto was, presumably, laying on the couch. “Papa, ice cream!”

“How does that sound, Kou?” Akaashi asked, following Shouyou into the living room. “That ice cream place you like closes for the season on the first, so we should go now.”

“Well, I guess,” Bokuto responded, pulling Shouyou into his arms as he stood. “If you want.”

“It’s your birthday,” Akaashi told him. “What do you want to do?”

“Ice cream!” Shouyou shouted again, looking at Bokuto with wide eyes. “Please?”

Bokuto’s frown cracked into a smile and he laughed, Akaashi sighing and smiling as well.

“Ice cream it is.”

\---

Shouyou was sitting on Bokuto’s lap, practically bouncing to his feet as Akaashi walked over with ice cream for the three of them. Shouyou liked ice cream but Akaashi was strict about only letting him have it on special occasions, so the boy looked about ready to burst.

“Ice cream!” Shouyou shouted, Akaashi gently shushing him so as to not bother the other people in the shop. Nobody seemed to mind, though, a few people seeming to instead find the excited two-year-old to be endearing.

“For you two,” Akaashi said, setting down a bowl of neapolitan ice cream down in front of them. For himself, he had mint-chocolate-chip which he rarely ate because he and Bokuto tended to share ice cream and despite his best efforts at lying, Bokuto obviously disliked mint. “Don’t let him eat too much, Kou.”

“I won’t,” Bokuto said with a wide smile, giving Shouyou the first, albeit small, bite. Akaashi smiled, taking a small bit of his own. Bokuto looked up at him and looked surprised. “What?”

“I’m glad to see you smiling again,” Akaashi said honestly. “You should be happy on your birthday.”

“I was just sad everyone was busy,” Bokuto mumbled, eating some of his ice cream as his smile turned back into a frown. “It’s not that you two aren’t good enough or anything.”

“I know, Kou. You know everyone didn’t mean to be busy. We’ll all do something this weekend, okay?”

“‘Kay,” he agreed, still looking glum, leaving Akaashi to curse himself for even bringing that up.

Shouyou tilted his head back to look at Bokuto, looking a little worried.

“Papa?”

“Sorry, Shouyou,” Bokuto laughed, smiling again and making Shouyou smile. “Want a little more?”

“Yes!”

Bokuto laughed and gave Shouyou some more ice cream. As he did, Akaashi felt his phone go off.

_From Kuroo Tetsurou: Can you keep him there for at least twenty more minutes?_

_To Group — Bokuto’s Birthday: That should be easy._

_Akaashi Keiji sent a picture to the Group — Bokuto’s Birthday_

_To Group — Bokuto’s Birthday: Shou-chan is a natural charmer._

_From Kuroo Tetsurou: Just like his dad._

_From Oikawa Tooru: Just like his dad._

_From Bokuto Nana: hahaha not sure which dad you’re talking about but youre both right_  

_From Konoha Akinori: sorry to say it, Nana, but your bros not charming at all_

_From Sarukui Yamato: I think hs you would disagree, Konoha 0_0_

_From Konoha Akinori: Shut the fuck up Saru, I will fight you._

_From Sarukui Yamato: >v< _

Akaashi did his best to suppress a chuckle, but Bokuto still noticed the slight shake of Akaashi frame. He was pretty observant when it came to Akaashi.

“What’s so funny?” He asked with a smirk.

“Oh, it’s just Kaori-chan. She sent me a funny picture.”

“Let me see!”

Akaashi felt his plan falling apart and he did the one thing he could think to do. He dropped his phone while hitting the lock button.

“Oops.”

“You did that on purpose,” Bokuto accused.

“Why would I do that?” Akaashi asked, smirking just a little.

“I don't know but you did.”

“Hmm, maybe it's a secret.”

“Keiji!” Bokuto whined, making Akaashi suppress another laugh.

“If you can guess my password, you can see it,” Akaashi said, “I'll even give to a hint, it's a date.”

“Umm…” Bokuto looked like he was thinking hard. “Your birthday.”

“No.”

“My birthday.”

“No.”

“Shouyou’s birthday.”

“Nope.”

“Uh… Kaori-chan’s birthday?”

“No.”

“Hikaru-san’s birthday?” Akaashi shook his head. “Chi-chan’s birthday?”

“You're getting farther away.”

“Our anniversary?

“Sorry, nope.”

“Ugh,” Bokuto was squinting his eyes as he thought hard. “The day you adopted Shouyou?”

“Still wrong.”

Bokuto groaned and if Shouyou wasn't on his lap, Akaashi was sure he would have laid out across the table like he always did when he was whining.

“Keiji,” he only pulled out the syllables in Akaashi’s name like when he was getting pouty. “What's the date?”

“If I tell you, you don't get to see the message.”

“Fine,” Bokuto said with a pout.

“Okay,” Akaashi said, looking down at his hands. “It’s the day we first met.”

Bokuto was silent for a moment before a blush spread on his cheeks followed quickly by a large grin.

“What?” Akaashi asked, feeling a little heat in his own cheeks.

“That’s just really cute, Keiji.” Bokuto reached at hand across the table to cover Akaashi's. “Like really really cute.”

“Well, it's just an important day,” Akaashi defended unnecessarily. “It changed my life.”

“Mine too,” Bokuto’s eyes softened all while Shouyou looked at his dad's confusedly. “Without you… wow, so much. But without you, I never would have had Shouyou in my life.”

“Without you, I would never have adopted him,” Akaashi admitted. “You made me a better person. You make me a better person. My mother and father taught me to act a certain way but you helped me stop thinking like that.”

“Don't give me so much credit,” Bokuto insisted, giving Shoyou another small spoonful of ice cream. “You changed because you wanted to. And I've heard Kaori-chan's stories. You were always trying to be good.”

“I was terrified of upsetting my parents so much that I was afraid of them finding out I was friends with a Mode and a person who was estranged from their sect.”

“But you got past that. Do I have to remind you that you’re the one who asked me out? In front of a huge crowd of people.”

“Will I ever live that down?” Akaashi asked, not waiting for an answer because he already knew that nobody would let him forget that day. “And do I need to remind why that even happened? Did you forget about our disastrous outing a few days earlier in which you gave me a present and so I shouted at you and ran away? Then you had to save me from a street fight, which I was losing at despite cheating. Then I kissed you before running away again and refusing to answer your texts.”

“Eh, that’s whatever,” Bokuto said, waving his hand like he could dispel Akaashi’s words. “You still asked me out in the most dramatic fashion ever.”

“I guess I had been feeling pretty dramatic that day,” Akaashi admitted. “After listening to my mother talk about how I was finally making them proud and how Kaori and I were making something of ourselves even though nobody expected anything from us—” Akaashi stopped, taking a deep breath and forcing his mind out of its negative spiral. “Sorry. It’s your birthday, I shouldn’t get all negative.”

“Keiji, you don’t have to apologize,” Bokuto reached across the table to grab Akaashi’s hand, smiling widely at him. “I’ll listen to everything, the good and the bad.”

“I know.”

“Can I ask you something?” Bokuto said, “Even though it’s not really happy.”

“Sure,” Akaashi said, wondering what Bokuto was going to ask.

“I had kinda forgotten about the day before you asked me out. I was thinking about something you said about you feeling messy. About me making you feel messy. What did you mean?”

“Oh,” Akaashi didn’t like thinking about that time in his life even if he did cherish the time he’d spent with Bokuto as well as with Oikawa and Sugawara. “You know that my ability is tied to my emotions which is why I usually try to suppress my emotions. I’ve worn dampening charms since I was in elementary school, but if my emotions get out of control, they can pretty easily break most dampening charms.

I constructed my world very carefully as I grew up to keep myself from getting overly emotional and everything worked out pretty well until I came to the city. Oikawa and Sugawara definitely tipped the scales of my emotions a little, but I was still in control with them, partially because they were careful around me. But you didn’t know about magic and you had no reason to be careful like them. You tipped the scales and I didn’t know how to keep my emotions even with you around. You made me question everything I believed and everything I thought I wanted and that was too much for me to handle very well. At the time, this seemed like a bad thing. Eventually, though, I realized that how I was feeling was normal.”

Bokuto was looking at Akaashi with big eyes that seemed to say that if he could, Bokuto would go back in time to stop Akaashi from feeling the things he’d felt. Akaashi had seen this look plenty of time, and not just on Bokuto, but Bokuto was the only person who didn’t make Akaashi feel terrible with the look. From most people, it was just plain pity. From Bokuto, though, it was something else. Maybe it was because Akaashi knew what Bokuto had been through, knew that Bokuto couldn’t stand pity either. More likely, though, it was because Akaashi was madly in love with his idiot of a husband.

“The Owl Sect looks down on non-offensive abilities,” Akaashi said, knowing he’d explained this before but hoping now there would be more context for it. “And so I was always taught to, I guess, hide my ability. Nobody cared enough to teach me how to use it, how to control it. I never even considered the possibility that it could be controlled until recently. All I knew was how to suppress it and to me, that was controlling it. An untrained child with an elemental ability can be dangerous because they don’t have control, but they can be taught control. And in the Owl Sect, they’re taught to control and then utilize it. For those of us with emotional abilities or abilities related to sensing, we’re rarely taught how to control and use our abilities. I was never taught to control my ability, just my emotions so when I found myself unable to control my emotions completely like I had for years, I also lost control of my ability. That loss of control plus the confusion over my feelings for you made everything seem really messy. I’d never felt messy like that, even when I first got my ability, so it was scary and uncomfortable.”

“I'm glad Shouyou doesn't have to grow up there.”

“Not everyone in the sect cares so much.” Akaashi's mind drifted over the people he'd met in his life, remembering the ones who'd meant the most to him. “Kaori-chan's family is great. But, I guess I came in contact with a lot of well-respected families and for them… I wasn't worth much.”

“You're worth plenty,” Bokuto said matter-of-factly enough that Akaashi smiled.

“I know, you and everyone else makes sure I remember that.”

_From Suzumeda Kaori: birdhouse is done_

Bokuto looked at Akaashi's phone, eyebrows furrowing.

“Kaori-chan's making a birdhouse?”

“Yeah,” Akaashi said before lamely adding, “She likes birds.”

“I didn’t know that.”

“It’s a new thing.”

“Tell her to send me a picture of the birdhouse,” Bokuto said. “We should make a birdhouse with Shouyou.”

Bokuto continued, finishing his ice cream while talking about all the things he thought they should build with Shouyou. Akaashi didn’t bother pointing out that neither of them knew a thing about construction. Akaashi was sure that if Bokuto really wanted to, then the two of them could figure out how to build a birdhouse.

“I guess it’s about time to head home,” Akaashi said, standing and taking both their empty containers towards the garbage while Bokuto followed with Shouyou walking next to him.

“I guess so.”

“We do need to stop by Oikawa-kun and Iwaizumi-kun’s first, though.”

“Why?” Bokuto asked, his eyebrows scrunching together.

“Well, I know we said we weren’t getting each other any presents this year, but I couldn’t help it.” Akaashi smiled at Bokuto. “But I didn’t want you to find it, so it’s at their place.”

“Keiji,” Bokuto complained. “No gifts was your idea!”

“It’s not expensive or anything,” Akaashi defeated. “It’s too late, anyway, it’s already there.”

“Fine,” Bokuto mumbled, looking conflicted between annoyance over Keiji ‘breaking’ their rule and also excitement over this surprise gift.

“I promise you’ll love it.”

Bokuto let himself smile, leaning over to kiss Akaashi on the cheek.

“If it’s from you, I’m sure I will.”

\---

Akaashi knocked on the door before saying loudly, “Oikawa-kun, are you there?”

He paused before digging into his pocket, making a show of being annoyed.

“He said he’d be home now so I could pick it up,” Akaashi shook his head as he unlocked the door. “I knew it was a good idea to get a spare key. He can be so forgetful.”

The door swung open easily and Akaashi stepped inside, allowing enough room for Bokuto to enter next to him while Akaashi felt around for the light. Before he could find the switch, though, someone hit the lights further into the apartment and suddenly the room was awash with light, revealing the people waiting to wish Bokuto a happy birthday.

“Happy birthday!” The group’s shout was loud enough to surprise Akaashi, who was expecting it, and he glanced over to make sure Bokuto and Shouyou were okay.

Shouyou’s eyes were wide, his mouth agape in a smile that made Akaashi chuckle.

Bokuto looked properly shocked and before Akaashi could make sure he was okay, he turned to look at Akaashi who realized there were tears spilling out of his eyes.

“Kou!” Akaashi exclaimed, worried about his husband.

“I love you all,” Bokuto told everyone present, a huge smile growing on his face as he hugged Shouyou closer.

Akaashi smile softened and he put an arm around Bokuto, leading him into the room while he still cried. Even as his friends and family made fun of him for being grumpy earlier and for crying now, he was still crying just a little bit and Akaashi thought his heart might burst because he knew that even now, this type of kindness surprised Bokuto and that wasn’t fair. If just wasn’t fair because Akaashi loved Bokuto and thought he deserved every happiness in the world.

As the uproar simmered down, Akaashi leaned over to whisper into Bokuto’s ear, his voice soft and warm.

“Kou, I love you.”

Bokuto turned to smile at Akaashi before throwing his arms around Akaashi neck–he’d put Shouyou down a bit ago to let him go find Tobio–leading to the group returning to a sort of uproar.

“I love you too.”

\---

The knock that came on Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s door was unexpected to say the least.

At that point, the party had settled down considerably, with only the occasional uproar from one group or another. Akaashi and Bokuto were sitting on the couch, Bokuto arm slung lazily across Akaashi’s shoulders as he joked with his high school teammates who’d come—Besides Konoha and Saru, Komi Haruki and Washio Tatsuki had come. Kuroo and Kenma were also nearby, Kuroo and Konoha trading snide remarks while Kenma simply rolled his eyes.

Elsewhere, Nana, Chinatsu, Kaori, and Oikawa looked like they were making plans. Akaashi just hoped they didn’t have anything to do with him. He suspected they would involve him.

Sugawara, Daichi, and Iwaizumi were playing with the three babies present—Shouyou, Tobio, and Kei—while chatting pleasantly.

A knock at the door wouldn’t have normally caused Akaashi any concern, not now that the main threat to Shouyou and Tobio had been turned into an asset, but he saw the way all the Magics with sensing abilities turned towards the door. Sugawara’s nostrils flared in the way they always did when he was sensing something he didn’t understand. Kenma’s eyes narrowed, looking at the door like he thought he could set it ablaze. Kaori’s face had become blank and her body rigid, motionless and ready to strike if needed.

Akaashi quickly turned too because he realized past the charmed door, he could feel new charms.

After a few moments of the Modes looking a little confused by the shift in the room’s energy, Akaashi saw Sugawara relax, looking at Oikawa.

“Were you expecting family?”

“No,” Oikawa said, seeming to understand the implication that—Akaashi assumed—the person at the door was from the Castle Sect. “I’m not sure who it could be.”

The modes around the room looked confused by the discomfort that had overtaken the room. Even if the probability of this being someone from the Castle Sect, Akaashi still felt on edge and surely so did everyone else.

Oikawa opened the door slowly, his back to the room and his body hiding the newcomers.

“Heya, Oikawa-kun,” a male voice Akaashi didn't recognize said. “How've you been?”

When Iwaizumi heard the voice, he shot up to follow Oikawa, standing behind his silent husband.

“Matsukawa? Hanamaki?” Iwaizumi said, shock in his voice. “How–? Where–? Are those–?”

“Calm down, Iwaizumi-kun,” a different man said. “We're coming for a visit is all.”

Akaashi recognized the names Iwaizumi had used as the names of some friends of theirs from their Junior and senior high school days. Around the time that Sugawara had fled from the Crow Sect and before Akaashi had met Sugawara and Oikawa, Matsukawa and Hanamaki had apparently left their homes to 'travel.’

They'd been gone for years, with only the occasional letter from wherever they were at the moment.

“Is it a bad time?” The first one asked. “Seems like there's a party going on.”

“Oh, well, yeah,” Oikawa said, seeming to have only just regained his voice. “Come in, I guess. Tell us about… who are they exactly?”

When the two men stepped inside, Akaashi saw what Oikawa was talking about. Both men were holding a child each. One was asleep—they looked like they were around Shouyou and Tobio’s age—and the other was watching the group calmly, awake and alert, but quiet.

“Oh, they're our sons,” the man who spoken first—he had light hair and a lopsided smile—said. “Wow, this is a lot of people. Is this a birthday or a funeral?”

“Birthday,” Iwaizumi answered even though the question was likely rhetorical. “Hanamaki-kun, Matsukawa-kun, why are you back? Where have you been? Why do you have two kids?”

“All in good time,” the darker-haired one with the drooping eyelids said. “Wow, this is a full house.”

“Owls, cats, crows, and sensitives.” Light-Hair smirked. “You've got quite the crew.”

“Maybe don't talk about things not considered modal,” Oikawa hissed, his eyes looking briefly at Bokuto's high school friends. “You forget not everywhere is like home.”

“Oops.” Light-Hair shrugged. “Oh, I guess we should introduce ourselves. I’m Hanamaki Takahiro and,” he gestured with his head at the sleeping baby he was holding. “This is Akira.”

“I’m Matsukawa Issei,” the other said, “and this is Shigeru.”

“It’s been a while,” Sugawara said, standing so the two could see him. “I wasn’t sure I’d see you two again.”

“Ah, Suga-kun,” Hanamaki smiled at Suga, “I guess I should have expected you to be here.”

The group was completely silent, the modes sharing confused looks while the magics continued to feel just a little ill at ease. After a long silence, Hanamaki spoke again, his eyes falling on Akaashi.

“You must be Akaashi—what was your first name?—Keita?”

“Keiji,” Akaashi corrected, waiting for Hanamaki to continue, unsure what he wanted or how he knew Akaashi’s name.

“I knew your grandfather. You look exactly like Akaashi-sensei,” Hanamaki said with a smile. “He was great at what he did and I’m surprised you didn’t follow in his footsteps. I’d heard rumors that you were as good as him, maybe better.”

“Things changed,” Akaashi said, glancing at Bokuto briefly. “It wasn’t the life I wanted to live.”

“And what life do you have, exactly?”

“I run an antique store.”

Hanamaki snorted, raising an eyebrow, “Really? You threw away your grandfather’s legacy for an antique store.”

Before Akaashi—or Bokuto, for that matter—could respond, Chinatsu stepped forward.

“Are we going to have a problem?” She took a few more steps towards the two men. “Because I don’t think you want to have a problem with me.”

“Slow your roll, girlfriend,” Matsukawa said, only making Chinatsu look angrier. “I mean, he’s just being an idiot. We’re not really used to this kind of thing.”

“Why don’t we go into the other room,” Oikawa suggested, “Suga-kun… Akaashi-kun… why don’t you two come?”

“Sounds good,” Sugawara respond, smiling at Daichi as he leaned in to whisper something to him before turning to stand nearer to Oikawa.

Akaashi nodded, starting to stand, but not before Bokuto caught his hand.

“I want to come,” he said in a low voice, “I don’t like this.”

“I know,” Akaashi agreed quietly so only Bokuto could hear him. “But I need you to keep people from worrying. And I want you here to watch Shou-chan.”

“You’ll tell me what happens?”

“Of course,” Akaashi said, meaning it. He was done lying to Bokuto. “I’m sure it’s nothing.”

“Okay,” Bokuto agreed.

“It’ll be fine,” Akaashi smiled and pecked a kiss onto Bokuto cheek before following Oikawa and the others into the other room, feeling like something was really, truly off.

\---

Once they were in Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s room, Oikawa was the first to speak.

“What the hell do you think you're doing?” He asked, his voice not quite a shout, but close. “You can't reappear after, like, five years and pretend that everything is okay. I think we've gotten ten letters and half of those were postcards. You missed our fucking wedding!”

Both men kept up their serene smiles, but as Akaashi glanced at Chinatsu—she’d made it pretty clear she was going to be part of this—Akaashi saw a strange look on her face.

Before he could ask her what was wrong, Chinatsu spoke up.

“What are you so afraid of?”

“Huh?” Matsukawa raised an eyebrow at her. “Afraid?”

“Don't play dumb, I'm an emotional sensitive with more power than you have in a single finger. I can feel the fear in your thoughts. What’s wrong?”

Looking like a sudden weight had fallen onto his shoulders, Hanamaki drooped, taking a few steps back until he reached the bed. Sitting down hard, he sighed and looked at Matsukawa as he held Akira closer to his body.

“What do they want me to do? Admit everything in front of a bunch of strangers?”

“We knew there was a possibility we wouldn't be able to get Oikawa-kun and Iwaizumi-kun alone.”

“We had a good reason to leave,” Hanamaki said to Oikawa and Iwaizumi. “I… I couldn't stay so close to the people I cared about. Issei is safe because he's a void, but…”

“What are you talking about?” Oikawa asked, obviously frustrated.

“Akaashi-san,” Hanamaki turned to Akaashi. “Your grandfather is the reason I was able to live a semi normal life, but it wasn't enough. His charms were great, but they weren't perfect.

“I'm a precognate. I see the future in dreams, but I have to be close to the person to see it. I mean that emotionally and physically so there are only a certain set of people I usually have dreams about. But those premonitions are true about half the time and they're always negative.

“My family kept my ability a secret to protect me. I told Issei almost a year after we started dating. But charms only last so long and after Akaashi-sensei died, there was no one powerful and skilled enough to make ones that protected me for long. That's why we left. I couldn't keep having those dreams. I couldn't keep watching as people I loved died or were hurt and I had to wonder if this was the time the coin would come up as correct.”

“Then why are you back?” Oikawa asked. “And where did these babies come from?”

“We were helping at a home for kids without parents,” Matsukawa said, taking over for the tired looking Hanamaki. “We got close to a lot of the kids. We shouldn't have, but…”

“I dreamed that they'd both die at the hands of their future caretaker. I wouldn't let that happen, even if it wasn't set in stone. I wouldn't let them be at the mercy of a terrible man like him when we were right there.”

There was a long silence and Akaashi spoke, his voice quiet and calm.

“If you need me to make some dampening charms, I'd be glad to. I don't know if I can really hold a candle to my grandfather, but dampening charms are pretty much my specialty these days.”

“Thanks,” Hanamaki said, looking at Akira instead of Akaashi. “That would be a huge help.”

“Why are you back?” Oikawa asked, pushing forward with the questioning. “If this is all true, why would you come back.”

“There was a huge ripple recently,” Hanamaki explained. “Any precognate would have felt it. It was an uncertain part of the future that was changing so rapidly that it was making ripples. Ripples happen every so often and they mess with precognition. In the “troughs" proconates are weaker. In the “ridges” they're stronger. In one of the “ridges” I had a dream that shouldn't have been possible normally. But with the extra power, it happened.

“I saw Oikawa-kun and Iwaizumi-kun. I saw three babies I'd never seen. I saw three people I didn't know, but who looked so much like Akaashi-sensei. I saw Suga-kun and a man I didn't know. I saw a man with strange hair I didn't know. You were all dead, completely and totally dead. I didn't know how or why. I just knew you were all gone.”

Hanamaki’s breathing was harsh and Akaashi took a few steps towards him. Calming himself, Akaashi put a hand on Hanamaki's shoulder and sent him waves of calming energy. After a moment, Hanamaki's breathing evened out and he smiled grimly at Akaashi.

“Emotional projection, huh? Wasn't expecting that.”

“Why not?” Akaashi asked.

“Because you're an Akaashi.”

“He didn't mean it like that,” Matsukawa said when Chinatsu took a step forward.

“Sorry,” Hanamaki laughed. “All I meant was it's surprising. Not a bad thing. A good thing, really. An elemental wouldn't have done me much good just then.” Hanamaki gave Akaashi another half smile. “Thanks.”

“Of course,” Akaashi said quietly, stepping back to his original spot next to Chinatsu.

“My dreams are only about half true,” Hanamaki continued. “To me, that means they can be changed. And like hell was I– were we going to let you all die.”

Oikawa sighed deeply before smiling bitterly.

“You two are the worst but I guess I love you guys.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Makki, you look terrible. Just… get some sleep I guess. You too, Mattsun.”

“Sure, okay,” Hanamaki agreed. “Akira and Shigeru–”

“We can watch them,” Sugawara interrupted. “My son as well as Akaashi’s son and nephew are out in the living room. Akira and Shigeru will be fine.”

“Akira’s wearing dampening charms, but his illusionary ability is pretty strong so watch out for that. Shigeru hasn’t manifested an ability yet, but… well, I guess I don’t need to tell you to watch out.”

“Don’t worry,” Sugawara told him with a slightly rueful smile. “Our kids don’t exactly have easy abilities. We’re pretty used to being on guard.”

“Yeah, I guess you’re right…” Hanamaki nodded and stood slowly, walking to hand Akira over to Sugawara. “By the way, I don’t think I said it to you guys, but it was… you did a good thing, taking in those life and death kids.”

“You know about them?” Akaashi asked, wondering how far the information had gotten.

“Yeah. There are rumors.” Hanamaki must have seen the fear that crossed through Akaashi’s mind on his face since he continued hastily. “People aren’t angry. Most of the world isn’t so focused on those kinds of labels. I can’t say they’re safe but… well, I don’t know what I can say. People are terrible.”

“It’s alright,” Akaashi said with a sigh. “I’m used to all this.”

Silence followed as Matsukawa handed Shigeru to Sugawara and the group began to disperse, Oikawa and Iwaizumi staying back to talk to their old friends while everyone else headed back to the party.

Before Akaashi could rejoin the party, Chinatsu grabbed him and pulled him back into the hallway, her voice quiet.

“There were three people who looked like grandpa,” she said. “You, me, and who? Aunt Akaashi? Uncle Akaashi?”

“I’m not sure we’re going to get that answered anytime soon,” Akaashi told her, trying to push down his growing feeling that things were heading towards another fight he wasn’t ready for. “Does it really matter, anyway?”

“It’s just– just because they were dead too doesn’t mean they were on our side.” Chinatsu bit her lip. “I still don’t trust Aunt Akaashi.”

“She’s dedicated to the sect,” Akaashi assured Chinatsu.

“How can you be sure?”

“It’s all she has.”

“I know I wasn’t raised in the sect,” Chinatsu said, refusing to look at Akaashi. “But I keep better tabs on them than you do these days. Things are changing. For the better, but they’re changing. If Aunt Akaashi feels threatened by the changes, she could be persuaded.”

“If my mother is anything, she is obstinate,” Akaashi said with a snort.

“If you’re sure,” Chinatsu looked up at Akaashi, obviously worried. “Please just be careful with her.”

“I always am.” Akaashi smiled ruefully. “Chinatsu-chan, it’ll be okay.”

“I know you’re careful, I just worry.” Chinatsu bit her lip again, this time hard enough to draw blood. Usually she wasn’t so obvious with her stress, but today was different. Akaashi couldn’t say if there was a reason for that difference or if it was just because of Matsukawa and Hanamaki’s appearance. He decided not to ask. “I hate the thought of you guys facing something like before without me. I should have been there.”

“If this is about The Sensitives, it wasn’t your fault you weren’t there. If I’d called, you would have come home.”

“I should have been there,” she repeated, not backing down. “You’re like– you are my little brother. Shou-chan is my nephew. If I can’t use this fucking ability to protect my family, what’s the point?”

“Chinatsu-chan, it’s not your job to protect anyone.” Akaashi wasn’t sure what to say. When it came to Bokuto, he almost always knew what to say, but with everyone else, it was much harder. “And you’ve already done so much for us. For me. I never would have made it this far without you.”

“If Aunt Akaashi fucks up another generation, I will k–”

Before Chinatsu could continue, a wave of magic hit them and Akaashi felt breathless as his protective charms weakened before finally breaking and his mind was overtaken with a vision.

There was a middle aged woman with black hair, messy and held up in a bun. She had green eyes that were so obviously the sign of an Akaashi. Her face was scarred and there was a hint of another scar starting on her neck. She was smiling and Akaashi was struck by how much she looked like his mother.

After a moment of focusing on her face, the vision pulled out and Akaashi was shocked by the knife in her abdomen. The smile suddenly seemed less happy and more pained, but like she was trying to pretend nothing was amiss.

The vision cut and Akaashi was on his hands and knees, sweat pouring from his brow and his breath heavy. He looked over at Chinatsu and saw she was on the floor too, sitting up but looking completely out of it, tears running down her cheeks.

Akaashi got to his feet, feeling a wave of dizziness as he rushed to the living room, first heading to where Shouyou was watching Tobio cry, looking confused.

Akaashi pulled an uncharmed necklace from his pocket—about six months earlier he’d started carrying uncharmed resonant objects for these sorts of occasions—and charmed it with a dampening charm. He was more tired than he realized, though, because the simple charm sent a wave of exhaustion over his mind and body. He put the necklace around Shouyou and then picked up a still crying Tobio, pulling the boy close as he looked around the room, realizing just how much damage Shouyou had done.

Sugawara and Daichi were holding tightly to the two new babies, but they both looked terrible. Sugawara’s natural defenses had obviously lessened the effects as he was a bit more conscious, but his face was still unnaturally pale. Daichi was uncharmed, though, so he looked on the edge of vomiting.

Kaori was clutching at her chest, taking rapid but shallow breaths. She had one hand on the wall to keep herself upright, though she looked like she was starting to come to.

Even Bokuto’s many layers of charms had been destroyed by Shouyou’s vision and he was sitting with his head in his hands, swaying slightly while Kuroo and Kenma sat nearby, both looking pale and out of it.

Worse, though, were all of the the uninitiated and uncharmed Modes. All five of them— six including the semi-charmed Nana who was standing next to Kaori, upright but gasping for breath—were looking worse for the wear.

Kei was currently crying louder than any of the other babies, probably because of his lack of charming and Akaashi leaned down to pull him into one arm while he held Tobio in the other.

Konoha was on the couch, one hand grasping his forehead like he had a bad headache and the other on his stomach like he didn’t feel well. Saru’s arm was gripping Komi’s hard enough for his knuckles to turn white, and also enough that it would probably leave a mark on Komi’s arm. Komi, like Saru, was staring into space like his mind was a mile away. Washio’s head was tilted back and he was staring at the ceiling.

The first to come to his senses enough to say anything was Sugawara, who looked at Akaashi with fear in his eyes.

“We’re fucked.”

Akaashi didn’t know what to say because Sugawara was right.

\---

The rest of Bokuto’s birthday had been less than pleasant as Akaashi and the other magic-aware people had to decide if it was worth trying to convince the five unaware adults that nothing had happened. The only way to do that was to somehow convince them that they either all took drugs at some point or that they were having a group hallucination.

That idea was very quickly thrown out.

And so, Akaashi and Bokuto were tasked with explaining magic to Bokuto’s high school friends and his older sister.

All said it went pretty well, but it helped that it wasn’t like it was easy for them to not believe Akaashi and Bokuto. Especially not with the help of those with more obvious abilities like Oikawa and Chinatsu.

By the time the party dispersed, Akaashi was pretty sure he’d given Bokuto the worst birthday ever. First, he’d made Bokuto think nobody wanted to hang out on his birthday, then he’d abandoned him to figure out what was going on with two strangers who’d just arrived before finally forcing him to explain that he’d been lying to his friends and sister.

Once they were home and Shouyou was put to bed, Akaashi ended up pacing around the living room, trying to figure out what he was doing wrong with his charms. He was sure there was a way to make charms so that they didn’t break so easily. He couldn’t always be around Shouyou, but until he was old enough to learn how to control his ability, Akaashi needed to know how to keep him better charmed.

Even at two Shouyou had more power than Akaashi, which made it hard to make him charms.

Akaashi was still less than confident in his own ability—he’d started some lessons six months ago, but they weren’t often and he still wasn’t convinced he could actually use his ability very well—but he knew he had a lot of power. For most of his childhood, it had been an unstable power, the level fluctuating from month to month and sometimes from day to day, but in the end, it had stabilized like everyone’s magic did. He had a huge pool of magic and despite that, it couldn’t hold a candle to Shouyou’s—or Tobio’s, for that matter.

Akaashi didn’t know anyone more powerful than those two babies and so he couldn’t get anyone to make a charm strong enough for Shouyou or Tobio. If only there was a way to trick the magic into thinking the charm was stronger, but magic wasn’t so organic as to be able to be tricked.

“Keiji.”

Akaashi turned to look at Bokuto, who was looking at him with sleepy but concerned eyes.

“Kou.”

“Come to bed, it’s been a long day.” Bokuto stepped into the living room. “You need rest.”

Akaashi ran a hand over his face, “I can’t sleep.”

“Staying awake won’t change anything,” Bokuto told him, reaching out to put a hand on Akaahsi’s arm. The touch was soft and for some reason, Akaashi found it jarring.

“Sleeping won’t either.”

Bokuto leaned down, putting his forehead against Akaashi’s.

“Talk to me. I can’t read your mind even if I try.”

“This was the worst birthday.”

“It wasn’t yours.”

“Kou–”

“I mean it.” Bokuto sighed. “You never asked me if I thought it was bad, you just decided it was.”

“You spent half the day thinking your friends didn’t want to spend time with you. Some strangers appeared and ruined the mood. You were invaded by a disturbing vision. You had to tell your friends and family that magic exists and they’d been lied to by a lot of people.”

“I also spent most of the day with you and Shouyou.” Bokuto’s voice was warm and comforting, flowing over Akaashi and making him feel just a little calmer. “I found out that your phone password is the day we met. I got to hang out with my high school friends.”

“I feel like I always make things more difficult.”

“Keiji. Sweetheart. Darling.” Bokuto took a half a step back, bring his hands up to cradle Akaashi’s face in his palms. “Stop it.”

Akaashi closed his eyes, hoping to escape the love in Bokuto’s eyes, his mind spiraling further and further into itself.

“I’m not good enough. I can’t make a single charm good enough for Shou-chan! For now, it’s just his foresight that I can’t control, but what happens when he loses control of his life ability? I don’t even know what his ability can do!”

Akaashi wrapped his arms around himself, his nails digging into the skin on his arm as he tried to regain his mental footing.

“I’m not good enough!” Akaashi could feel how the words were clawing their way out of his throat despite his best efforts not to say them, or to at least not shout them. “I’m not good enough for Shou-chan or for you.”

Akaashi’s eyes were still closed tightly but tears still managed to flow onto his cheeks. They were caught by Bokuto’s hands and Akaashi was sure he could also feel the way Akaashi was trembling. He was trying his hardest to not let this devolve into a full panic attack and yet it seemed to be headed that way. For now, he had control of his breathing and that was something, but he wasn’t sure how long that would last.

One of Bokuto’s arms wrapped around Akaashi’s waist, pulling Akaashi close to his body while he used the other hand to smooth back Akaashi’s hair.

“Hey, it’s okay,” Bokut said in a quiet, soft voice that only really manifested when Akaashi was neck deep in self-doubt and self-loathing. It was an anchor that Akaashi was glad for. It was a life preserver that he could hold onto so even if the doubt and loathing got too deep to stand, he’d still be able to keep his head above water. “I’m here. You’re okay. It’s okay.”

“For how long?” Akaashi asked, his voice muffled by Bokuto’s thin nightshirt. “I don’t want to think of it as protecting the world from Shou-chan, but that’s what it feels like. Now it’s visions of the future. Tomorrow it could be… we don’t even know. I have to protect Shou-chan from people who want to hurt him, but I also have to protect everyone from the things he can do now. He’s a baby, he doesn’t know how to control himself.”

At the mention of control, Akaashi realized how tenuous a grasp he currently had on his own ability. He’d been learning to control it—for now it was basically dampening it naturally, though his teacher had explained that eventually he should be able to separate his ability from his emotions without needing to dampen his ability—and six months had taught him a lot, but now he could feel himself slipping.

“Keiji, you know I still don’t know much about magic, but if anyone can figure this out, it’s you. Charms run in your family and I don’t just mean your grandfather. Uncle Hikaru and Chinatsu-chan too. You’re really smart and really strong and, based on what everyone’s said, really powerful. Maybe there isn’t any more you can do for Shouyou, but if there’s anything else to do, you’ll do it. I know you will.”

“How can you know? I don’t know, how can you?”

“Because I might not know magic, but I know you.” The hand running through Akaashi’s hair fell to help pull Akaashi into an even tighter hug. “I love you and I know you can do anything.”

Bokuto kissed the top of Akaashi’s head, pulling away only slightly before he continued.

“I really meant it when I said I’ll listen to anything, even if it’s bad. You need to talk to me before it gets this bad.”

“I didn’t notice,” Akaashi told him honestly. “But I’ll try to be better.”

“I know you will.”

“Stop it,” Akaashi said with a small laugh. “You’re too nice to me.”

“Never.” Bokuto smiled at Akaashi. “At the very least, you’re way too pretty for me not to be nice to.”

“You’re an idiot,” Akaashi said with another laugh, wiping at his eyes. “Goddamn it I love you.”

“I love you too.”

A smile spread onto Bokuto’s face and it was one that Akaashi had seen before.

“Oh no, what are you thinking?”

“Owl love you forever,” Bokuto said with a shit-eating grin that would put Oikawa and Kuroo to shame.

Akaashi groaned and leaned his face back against Bokuto’s chest, grasping around for Bokuto’s hand. When he finally found it, he gripped it tightly, partially because it was the easiest way for him to show his affection and partially to keep himself from continuing to dig his nails into his skin.

“You’re corny.”

“And you married me.”

“I guess I did.”

“Also I’m pretty sure you were the one who asked me to marry you.”

“Maybe I did.”

“And you asked me out.”

“Are you going to bring that up twice in one day?”

“Technically that was yesterday.”

Akaashi laughed into Bokuto’s shirt, too tired to stand up straight or try and fight Bokuto’s silliness. Sometimes Bokuto was silly because that was his personality, but sometimes he was also silly to distract Akaashi from his own mind. Akaashi knew that’s what he was doing, but it still worked. Bokuto’s voice had a way of filling up every corner of his mind, no matter how nonsensical the words were. They drove out any thought Akaashi didn’t will to stay put. Akaashi trusted Bokuto to keep him preoccupied for long enough to calm himself down physically. Then he could start the process of calming his mind without worrying about hyperventilating or his heart rate skyrocketing.

“Let’s lay down,” Bokuto suggested. “You don’t have to sleep, but you should at least lay down.”

“Okay,” Akaashi agreed, separating from Bokuto, who kept on hand around Akaashi’s waist as they walked back to their bedroom. “Did you really have a good birthday? No lying.”

“I really did,” Bokuto told him, leaning over to kiss Akaashi on the head again. “No lying.”

They passed Shouyou’s room and Akaashi paused.

“One second.”

Walking into Shouyou’s room, Akaashi let himself remember how different his life would have been without Bokuto and without Shouyou. Not only was Bokuto a big part of the reason Shouyou was here with them, but Shouyou was the reason Akaashi had started to open up more. He’d been so closed off, even with Bokuto, but Shouyou made him see the value in truthfulness.

Stepping over a few toys that hadn’t been put away yet, Akaashi walked to Shouyou’s crib, Bokuto close behind. In only a few months, Shouyou would start sleeping in a bed and that was almost hard to believe. He was small, he had been since Akaashi had first seen him, but the doctor said it wasn’t a problem.

Despite having completely different hair colors, there was something about the wildness of Shouyou’s hair that made Akaashi think he looked a lot like Bokuto. Their demeanor also helped in drawing that similarity. Shouyou could be selfish sometimes, but on the whole, he was really kind to his cousin and to Tobio. He had tantrums—plenty of them—but he was actually pretty easy to calm down if you knew what to say.

He was fast asleep, having gotten much better at sleeping through the night in the last year. In his arms he was clutching the stuffed crow he got for his second birthday. It had been more of a joke than anything else when Sugawara and Daichi gave it to him, but Shouyou had gotten attached to it and didn’t like to be separated from it. He slept with his mouth open wide, drool escaping onto the mattress of his crib. It made him look even more like Bokuto, who despite being a quiet sleeper often slept with his mouth wide open.

“Do you think he’ll be okay?” Akaashi asked.

“I’m sure he will.”

“Life is going to be hard. He’s going to be sitting in the middle of two worlds he’s not a part of. He’s a member of the Owl Sect by blood, but he’s not exactly going to be part of it. He lives in a highly modal area but he’s anything but a mode.”

“He’ll figure it out, just like we figured stuff out.” Bokuto put his arm around Akaashi’s shoulders. “We’re not really puzzle pieces, I don’t think. It’s not that organized. Neither of us fit in very well, but look what we have now. A family. In a way, we’re like a sect. Suga-kun and Oikawa-kun. Kuroo-kun and Kenma-kun. Big sis’ and Chintau-chan. We’re all like a big family or something. Even if Shouyou doesn’t fit in with the owls or with Modes, he’ll fit in with us. He’ll always have a home.”

Akaashi smiled, leaning into Bokuto’s side.

“A home,” Akaashi murmured. “You’re right.”

“Now let’s lay down.”

“Okay,” Akaashi agreed, letting himself be dragged away from Shouyou and to bed where they would inevitably lay awake for an hour or more.

But as he let himself think about Shouyou’s charms, he felt more at peace and like, for the first time, maybe he really could figure this out.

\---

“Thank you for letting me come, Kozume-san,” Akaashi said as Kozume Shizuka led him into the Cat Sect’s extensive library. “I would have used my sect’s but…”

“It’s alright, Akaashi-kun,” Shizuka said with a small smile. “Kenma and Testu-chan like you, so I don’t see any reason not to help you out.” She gestured to a wall of at least four full bookshelves, “This is our charms section. Feel free to stay as long as you need. If you need anything you can come find me.”

“Thank you, this is a big help.”

Shizuka nodded and disappeared back into the library, leaving Akaashi to sigh and wonder where he could possibly start. Giving up on making a plan, he pulled the first book off the first shelf and checked the title.

“35 charms for young Magics,” Akaashi read to himself, sighing again and flipping it open as he sat down on a hard chair near the charm shelves.

He’d come to the conclusion that there had to be something more he could be doing for Shouyou to keep him better charmed and that if he simply did some research, he’d be able to figure it out. If he’d accepted the position as apprentice master charmer, this would have been what he would have done pretty much the rest of his life. His grandfather had an entire book full of research on old charms, reworked charming instructions, and even a few new charms he’d created.

Akaashi wasn’t sure he was about to reinvent the wheel with whatever charm he’d use for Shouyou, but he thought maybe there was something out there that could at least make Shouyou’s childhood easier.

If he’d been a master charmer, or at least had been on better terms with the current master charmer, he would have headed home to use the mater charmer’s library, but the Cat Sect’s library had been a great second choice. When he remembered that Kenma’s mother worked at the library, he’d gotten a little excited. If Akaashi was honest, this library was more impressive than he had expected from an honestly pretty small sect.

The basic charm book he was reading now had five sections of charms: offensive, defensive, passive, buff, and other. First he flipped to the defensive charms, reading through all the basic shields they had, scribbling down notes in the notebook at his side.

He thought maybe if he made a shielding charm that was activated by Shouyou’s out of control magic which should be easy. He could just need to make the shield easy to trigger and with shields that was pretty safe and easy. The shield would keep Shouyou’s magic from escaping.

“But,” he said aloud like he usually did when he was critiquing himself. Talking aloud helped him to not get too emotionally connected while he was critiquing his work. That meant that he could not only see the flaws, but also the good points more easily. “This shield would bounce magic back at Shouyou. It would trap him in his own magic.”

Akaashi sighed and moved on. That could be a good worst-case-scenario kind of charm, but he couldn’t imagine trapping Shouyou in his own foresight projections let alone the possibility of trapping him in with out of control life magic.

Akaashi exhausted what that book had to offer and started looking for something with more about shields, wondering if there was an angle he could come at this with that still involved shields. Even if he couldn’t find anything, he was still interested in learning more about shields. He ended up pulling six books about shields off the shelf before finding a place to sit on the floor since it was more comfortable than the chair.

Just when Akaashi thought he’d gotten everything out of these books that he could, he happened upon a less than interesting paragraph about shields. He was about to move on when something strange caught his attention.

 

 

> Contrary to the belief of many, shields are the most useful of charms you can create. They had many purposes, relating both to internal and external stimuli. With five types of shields, this charm type is as diverse as it is powerful.

Akaashi stared at the page, counting over and over again, but he still came to the same answer. There were four shield types that he could recall—one-sided shields, spherical shields, snowglobe shields, and aura shields—and he couldn’t for the life of him think of a fifth shield type.

Tearing through the book, Akaashi felt like he was on the verge of something and yet… there was nothing. Letting the book fall into his lap, Akaashi sighed and leaned back against the bookshelf.

“There you are.”

Startled, Akaashi picked the book back up and threw it at the voice, realizing belatedly that it was Kuroo.

“Shit!” He shouted, able to dodge out of the way, the book falling to the ground in front of Kenma who said nothing, only looking at Akaashi with a raised eyebrow. “Didn't know you were so violent.”

“Sorry, Kuroo-kun,” Akaashi sighed. “You surprised me. What do you need?”

“Well, you weren't responding to texts all day and I think Bo was starting to worry a bookshelf had fallen on you,” Kuroo said with a smirk. “I told him we'd head over and make sure you weren't dead.”

“I'm sorry you had to come all the way out here,” Akaashi said as he struggled to his feet. “My phone is off. I didn't want to be distracted.”

“How's the research going?” Kenma asked and Akaashi handed him his notebook.

“Not great. I went down a shield rabbit hole and it was a dead end.”

“This make a good offensive charm,” Kenma said, pointing to Akaashi's notes about using shields. “I mean, like you could use this idea to trap a Magic.”

“True,” Akaashi said with a shrug. “But I'm not trying to find a charm for offense. I need to help Shou-chan.”

“I know and you should take a break now,” Kuroo cut in. “How long have you been at this?”

“Well, I got here around nine in the morning. What time is it now?”

“Nine!” Kuroo exclaimed. “It’s six. Have you taken a break?”

“I went to the bathroom once,” Akaashi said with another shrug. “I have work to do.”

“Fucking– I knew you used to be a mess, but I didn't realize you still were.”

“I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

“You’ve been here for nine hours without eating anything or going outside,” Kuroo shook his head, starting to pick up the books Akaashi had left on the ground despite Akaashi’s protests. “And it’s time to call it a day.”

“But I haven’t gotten anywhere yet,” Akaashi grumbled even as he allowed Kuroo to clean up the area he’d been holed up. “I’ve only gotten through, like, ten books. There’s so many more.”

“You can come back tomorrow,” Kenma said, looking at Akaashi with unreadable eyes as he handed back Akaashi’s notebook. “And, you know, if you need help, we could help. I know the Cat Sect isn’t known for their charms, but Kuroo and I have a lot of experience with charms.”

“I thought as much,” Akaashi admitted. “You both wear a lot of charms, even for Magics.”

“You know how many charms we wear?” Kuroo asked, blinking.

“Sure,” Akaashi shrugged. “Usually, you wear four charms, Kuroo, and Kenma, you wear five. Wear is maybe the wrong word, since I assume the charms you both have on your backs are tattoos.”

“You figure that all out without ever asking us about them?” Kuroo was shaking his head as he spoke. “And also, why not just ask us about our charms?”

“Charms can be personal. I assumed at least three of your charms were just protection charms. I never figured out what the charm on Kenma’s glasses was, but it wasn’t very powerful. But a tattoo, a matching one at that, seemed to be personal.”

“You Owls are weirdos,” Kuroo commented, starting to pack Akaashi’s bag even as he said he could do it himself. “How could you ever tell that? I thought you didn’t have any sensing ability.”

“I don’t,” Akaashi said. “But there’s a relatively new theory about latent abilities. My uncle actually wrote a research paper about it, though I don’t think it was taken very seriously despite his being an Akaashi. But it shows up a lot in our line, actually. He thinks it’s why so many Akaashi’s have been master charmers.”

“I’ll have to look it up,” Kenma said. “That sounds interesting.”

“So you’re saying you have a latent charm sensing ability?” Kuroo handed Akaashi his bag and his now restarting phone. “Let’s go.”

“I don’t know how else to explain it. I’ve always been very sensitive to charms. When I first started wearing dampening charms they were very distracting because of how much I just… noticed them. I can tell when there’s magic, sort of, coming off of things. And people, actually, though that’s not as easy for me to tell as with charms. Charms almost give off heat. I can usually tell if there’s a magic nearby because I can feel the heat their charms give off. I can even feel it from my own charms, though it’s easier to tune them out.”

“Weird,” Kuroo commented as they came back into view of Shizuka. “Hey Auntie. We didn’t completely clean up back there, but you can just leave the books. He’ll be back.”

“That’s alright. Not many people come to the library these days, anyway.” Shizuka smiled at them. “By the way, Tetsu-chan, your mother told me to tell you that you should visit more. You live in the same city but you two barely come back to visit.”

“I know,” Kuroo groaned. “I am sorry, things have just been busy.”

“That’s no excuse to ignore your parents. They’re worried about you. After you two ended up in the hospital, we were all worried.”

Kuroo turned to look at Akaashi before he could say anything.

“Akaashi-kun, if you apologize right now I will punch you in the stomach.”

“But–”

“Nope, no apologies, it wasn’t your fault.” Kuroo turned back to Shizuka. “I really am sorry about all that. I wish things could have been easier.”

“Well, we understand even if we don’t like it.” Shizuka looked back down at the book she was reading. “Well, Akaashi-kun, feel free to come back any time you’d like. You’re more than welcome.”

“Thank you, Kozume-san,” Akaashi responded with a bow before following Kenma and Kuroo out of the library.

\---

“I’ve been over and over all ten of the main charm groups,” Akaashi said to Kenma. “But I think the thing I keep thinking about it the fact that this book, mentions there being five shield types.”

“Five?” Kenma asked, taking the book from Akaashi and reading the marked section. “That’s really strange. Aren’t there four?”

“That’s what I though,” Akaashi told him. “But this makes me wonder if I’m wrong.”

“Did you find anything in any other books here?”

“No,” Akaashi said with a sigh. “I guess I should forget about it. But it’s driving me crazy.”

“What about the Owl Sect’s libraries? Their charm section had to be better than ours.”

“If there’s anything about a fifth shield type, they’d have a book about it,” Akaashi agreed. “But I’d really rather not have to go back there. Especially since the master charmer and I aren’t exactly on the best of terms. Once his apprentice takes over, I’ll have more of chance at getting access to the full libraries, but that won’t be for at least three years. Maybe even longer.”

“Well, then you should drop it,” Kenma suggested. “We both agreed shields weren’t the right direction anyway.”

Akaashi sighed, wanting to agree, but also feeling like that was the best lead that had. Maybe it wouldn’t be good for Shouyou, but it was something. Akaashi had been at this for three weeks now and had gone through all the books. Kenma had started coming with him for the past week, so at least Akaashi would have someone to bounce ideas off. Since she was in town, Chinatsu had taken control of the antique store to let Akaashi do research. His friends had been periodically pitching in to watch Shouyou when both Akaashi and Bokuto were busy with work or research. He was overwhelmingly grateful for the help from his friends and honestly didn’t know what he’d done to deserve them.

But it had been three weeks of nothing and Akaashi was starting to think there was nothing to be found that would help Shouyou.

“Akaashi, I think it’s time you stopped trying to find a solution in these books,” Kenma said with a sigh.

“What do you mean?”

“You’re a skilled charmer, but you never leave the bounds of what has already been done.” Kenma bit his lip and continued. “Testsurou and I aren’t exactly the greatest charm makers out there, but even we’ve made our own charm before.”

“Really?”

“Remember the charms on our backs you thought were tattoos?” Akaashi nodded. “Well, you’re right, they’re tattoos. And I guess they are personal, like you thought. They’re modified communication charms. It’s a passive communication charm that allows us to know if they other is close and if they’re in danger. It’s not that strong of a charm, but it gets the job done.”

“That’s incredible,” Akaashi said, eyes widening. “You should write about it if you made a new charm.”

“It’s not that useful.” Kenma shook his head. “And that’s not the point. The point it, you need to get out of your comfort zone and make your own charm. Or at least do something with charms that hasn’t been done before. Life magic isn’t something that has had a lot of research behind it, so you really shouldn’t put so much stock in books.”

Akaashi nodded, looking at his unhelpful notes and then back up at Kenma.

“Okay. I guess I need to learn to make a charm.”

\---

It was almost a week and a half later than Akaashi finally finished the first step of his new line of research. After deciding that he’d have to create his own charm, or at least his own charm combinations, Akaashi had gone on a journey to understand charms at their very base.

It took him a week and a half, but he now had notes breaking down the meaning of each of the basic 42 charming runes. Those 42 runes made up around 80 to 90 percent of charms, but Akaashi learned quickly that he didn’t know much about them.

There were three layers to charms with the smallest part being the runes. The next part were components, which were groupings of two or three runes that had more specific purposes. Then there were actual charms, which were usually made up of one component and a basic charm group rune.

Most Magics learned to make charms by learning components, not individual runes or even individual charms. Akaashi had learned most of his charms by just learning the charms themselves, though he understood the usage of components. He’d learned the important components and he’d learned the important runes, but that was it. Most components were made up of runes that were rarely used on their own—there were exceptions, of course—and so learning the meaning of the runes alone was hardly necessary.

Now, though, he’d thoroughly researched all the common runes and had learned a great deal about the creation of charms in the process. That said, he was still a little lost as to where to go from them. He had all these runes now, but he still had a hard time piecing together how to make a charm from them.

“The way we did it,” Kuroo explained as he lounged on the ground, his head on a pillow he’d brought and his eyes closed, “was to use a charm that already existed and modify it. It’s the easiest way to do it.”

“That’s a good point,” Kenma agreed. “You should start with a base of a regular dampening charm. What do you usually use? I don’t really remember.”

“It depends on the case. When I’m making my long term ones, I usually do at least 90 percent dampening. A lot of times I do a full void charm, but that takes a lot out of me. If it’s a last minute charm, I just try to get above 50 percent since that usually will block Shou-chan’s projection ability even if it doesn’t stop the actual foresite. A lot of it also depends on how much power I have left.”

“A full void charm, huh,” Kuroo commented. “That’s gotta’ take a lot out of you.”

“It does, but it’s worth it since those can usually last a long time. If it was anyone other than Shou-chan, they’d probably last at least six months, if not a year, but his power level is just so high that if he accidentally uses full power to project, then it will almost always break my charm.”

“He does have a lot of power,” Kenma agreed. “What are the components and runes in a void dampening charm?”

“A magic rune and a modified dampening components using a null rune instead of a reduction rune.”

“What if you used a dampening charm at a lower value, like 75 percent or 55 percent. Something that’ll block the projections.”

“Those work for one projection, sometimes,” Akaashi explained. “I want to make something where I don’t have to worry about it breaking when I’m not around. Even leaving Shou-chan alone with Kou makes me nervous because if I’m not around to repair a broken charm, I don’t know what could happen. I don’t know if Shou-chan will be able to learn personal control before starting elementary school. And if we want to send him to preschool, he definitely won’t be ready on his own then. If Shou-chan is going to have a semi-normal childhood, then he needs to have a charm that will protect him and everyone else until he can learn to control his magic.”

Kuroo sighed, not opening his eyes, “Do you have any ideas, then?”

“I’m thinking,” Akaashi responded. “I was never trained to do this. All I know how to do it make the same charms I’ve always made.”

“I know there’s a lot of baggage with the Akaashi name,” Kenma said quietly, “But don’t forget, you are an Akaashi and your family is one of the best when it comes to charms. You were put on the path to become a master charmer when you were still really young, so you must have shown some amount of ability.”

“I guess…” Akaashi bit at his lip, tearing up the skin and tasting blood. Despite that, he was unable to stop himself from finishing the job, knowing there would be another scab left on his lips in the morning. “Really the only reason I ended up in the running so early was because I was able to make a charm when I was pretty young.”

“Really?” Kuroo sat up now, looking interested. “You know, you’ve never told us much about how you got on the path for master charmer. Or really anything about your childhood.”

“Kuro,” Kenma said in a warning tone, “Don’t be a nosey asshole.”

“I’m just wondering! Akaashi-kun was nearly master charmer, that’s pretty impressive, especially since he was, like, nineteen at the time.”

“I made my first charm when I was nine,” Akaashi told Kuroo, earning him two shocked looks. “I had some help from an old… friend getting it right.”

“Nine?” Kuroo shook his head, “You guys start early on charms.”

“Well… we don’t start learning in school until fifth year of elementary school, but I had… personal reasons why I wanted to learn earlier.” Akaashi could remember the horrible feeling of his father invading his mind and stealing all the secrets Akaashi was trying to keep locked away. “So I did.”

“You taught yourself to make charms?” Kenma asked, looking a little upset. Akaashi knew Kenma had a mind reading ability that was attuned to something called ‘residual thoughts’ and so he could probably pick up on Akaashi thinking about his father. “That’s amazing, Akaashi-kun.”

“I had help from a friend,” Akaashi repeated. “Can we move on?”

Kuroo nodded, looking uncomfortable, “Sorry for that.”

“Don’t worry about it,” Akaashi insisted, looking back at his notes even though he wasn’t reading any of them. “I guess I’ve just never really talked about it before. It’s not really… something I like remembering.”

“We understand,” Kenma said, nodding. “You don’t have to talk about it.”

“Thanks.” Akaashi sighed and put his notebook down. “Okay, maybe it’s time for a break.”

\---

Akaashi didn’t like talking about his childhood, but he and Bokuto had shared plenty with each other about their respective childhoods. They’d matched in a lot of ways, which made it easier to talk about them. Still, since Bokuto didn’t know about magic for a long time, they’d really not talked about the parts of Akaashi’s childhood that he skipped or modified.

It was often hard to remember what he had and hadn’t told Bokuto.

Now, though, his mind was fixated on memories of his early childhood. They were faded and blurry, and yet he could still distinctly remember the feeling of his father’s mind in his thoughts, rooting around for information about how Akaashi had failed them this time.

To this day, Akaashi’s mind charms were the strongest of his protection charms because he just couldn’t bare that feeling again. He sometimes let Tobio explore his thoughts because it often seemed to calm the boy down, but that was different. Tobio’s mind was soft and it wasn’t really probing for information. It was more like someone watching a movie, he was just there to see what there was to see. Akaashi could control the thoughts that Tobio saw and Tobio was fine with that.

It was about two days after his conversation with Kuroo and Kenma that he and Bokuto were sitting at the table with Shouyou, who was coloring will the kind intensity that only a young child could bring to what amounted to a bunch of scribbling. That said, Bokuto was helping Shouyou color the picture, and his face was decently serious given they were coloring a picture of pikachu.

“Keiji,” Bokuto said, not looking up from the picture, “Is there something you want to talk about?”

“Huh?” Akaashi blinked at Bokuto. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve been on edge for the past day or two. What’s up?”

“Oh, sorry, I wasn’t trying to keep anything from you,” Akaashi said truthfully.

“That’s fine, but what’s wrong?”

“I was just thinking about stuff from when I was younger,” Akaashi explained. “It sort of came up while Kuroo, Kenma, and I were working on Shou-chan’s charm.” Shouyou glanced up at his name, but then went back to coloring when he saw Akaashi wasn’t talking to him. “When I was nine, I made my first charm. Most people don’t start studying charms until ten or eleven at youngest so Kuroo and Kenma were surprised.”

“Why was that bothering you?” Bokuto asked, looking up from his coloring to look at Akaashi with concern in his eyes. “Did you get in trouble?”

Akaashi laughed, “No, I think that was the first time my parents were actually proud of me since I was a baby.”

His laughter petered out and he looked down and his lap, his hands folded together in an effort to combat any skin picking that he might try to start.

“There’s a lot of things about my childhood that I don’t think about often, this included. It’s not really healthy, but I still do it.” Akaashi sighed. “The first charm I ever made was a mental protection charm. I don’t usually make that charm for you, since mind readers aren’t that common. Most Magics wear one, but one mental protection charm tends to last a really long time because it’s rarely tested.”

Akaashi swallowed, knowing he was over explaining so that he didn’t have to talk about the memories he’d tried so hard to forget. He wasn’t someone who loved the sound of his own voice—he would rather not talk most of the time—but when his anxiety rose, he had a tendency to fill silence with words. He liked to be the one talking because then he could have a little bit of control over the contents of the words being said.

“My father is a mind reader. He would often read my mind growing up. Like how parents might read their children’s texts or emails. I just couldn’t take it anymore and I decided I needed to teach myself to protect my mind. The best way to do that was by making my own charm. It was a long time ago, it shouldn’t still… I can still feel the way it felt to have my mind invaded like that. It’s not… I don’t like it. If I don’t think about it, it goes away, so I don’t like talking about it.”

“Oh, Keiji.”

Bokuto eyes were sad and Keiji hated it. Usually he didn’t mind that look from Bokuto because he knew Bokuto understood, but this was different. There was probably someone out there that understood, who’d lived a life like Akaashi’s, but Bokuto wasn’t that person. Akaashi didn’t want pity and he didn’t want to think about something that happened around two decades earlier.

“It’s not a problem,” Akaashi insisted. “It was ages ago.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Bokuto told Akaashi with a hard voice that didn’t match his soft, sad eyes. “And I don’t care if you’re four or fourteen or fourty, privacy is privacy. You deserved more than that. Privacy should be a given, not something you fight for.”

“I know,” Akaashi responded, doing his best not to let himself ice over and push Bokuto out. He shouldn’t want to keep Bokuto out and yet he felt himself doing exactly that. “But it’s in the past.”

“Forgetting about it isn’t going to help,” Bokuto said, speaking slowly and deliberately. “Keiji, I know we’ve never really talked about it, but maybe you should find a psychologist who actually knows about magic.”

Bokuto and Akaashi separately went to counseling twice a month—it was hard to do more than that with Shouyou and work—but it was a Mode since Magics weren’t as common in non-magical fields. Akaashi had talked a little about his childhood, again having to modify or skip over things relating to magic, but that had never been a problem.

“I don’t know…”

“You’ve started learning to control your magic,” Bokuto said. “And maybe this is something you should also do. Counselling has really helped me with the things that happened to me growing up and maybe you need to talk to someone a little more frankly.”

“I’ll think about it,” Akaashi said quietly, not looking at Bokuto. He wasn’t strong enough to look at him. “I just don’t know if I’ll be able to find someone who knows about magic.”

“We’ll look,” Bokuto told him and the two of them fell silent, a tension lingering in the air for the rest of the night.

\---

Akaashi looked up from his book, looking at Kenma and Kuroo, something dawning on him. He’d lost track of exactly how long he’d been working on this charm, but he thought it was somewhere around six weeks since he first started coming to the library to work.

“Absorption charms.”

“Huh?” Kuroo looked up, tilting his head to the side as Akaashi’s contextless words obviously confused him.

“An absorption charm can last a really long time because it uses the energy it absorbs. If we can chain together a dampening charm and an absorption charm, it could power the dampening charm.”

“You think that'll work?” Kuroo asked.

“I don't know,” Akaashi admitted. “But it might.”

“The only way to know is to give it a try,” Kenma pointed out. “What's your plan?”

“I need to find a way to connect the absorption charm to the void charm.”

“The rune makeup for both is similar,” Kuroo added. “We should start with that, maybe.”

“Do you think we could take the two endings and just combine them?” Akaashi asked, writing for a charm in his notebook. “And we can just put the passive magic beginning.”

“Only one way to find you,” Kuroo said with a smile. “Let’s try it out.”

\---

It was past midnight when Bokuto found Akaashi still at the dining room table, scratching runes of different combinations while he tried to figure out why today’s attempt hadn’t worked. The charm didn’t hold onto the energy, seeming to ignore the absorption charm altogether.

He was biting mindlessly at his thumb nail when Bokuto walked over to him, sleep clinging to his eyes and his movements slowed.

“Keiji, Darling, come to bed.”

“I will when I finish this.”

“You need to come to bed now,” Bokuto said worriedly. “It’s one in the morning.”

“I know,” Akaashi said, his eyes still glued to his notebook. “I’ll come to bed soon.”

“Keiji, you don’t need to work yourself to death on this. You won’t be any good to Shouyou like this.”

“Koutarou, this is something I have to do,” Akaashi told him. “And I need to do it as soon as possible.”

“Keiji, I’m serious, you can’t do this to yourself.” Bokuto’s voice was strained as he spoke, but Akaashi continued to work as they talk. “I mean it.”

“This is important,” Akaashi said, only half paying attention to his words. “You wouldn’t understand.”

“Seriously, Keiji? You’re going to play that card?”

“Koutarou…”

“Jesus Keiji!” Bokuto shouted, “At least look at me while you tell me to fuck off!”

Akaashi’s pencil stopped and he looked up at Bokuto, whose face was caught somewhere between anger and tears. Akaashi’s mind was split too, half of him feeling like shit for making Bokuto make that face and half of him feeling angry because Bokuto just couldn’t understand how important this was.

“That’s not what I’m saying,” Akaashi responded, his voice even. “This is just more important than sleep. I’m talking about Shouyou’s safety. I’m talking about your safety.”

“No, you’re being selfish. You think that only your feelings matter, but seeing you like this is terrible. I don’t want you to do this to yourself just because you’re afraid.”

“Of course I’m afraid!” Akaashi’s voice rose and so did he, crossing his arms as he glowered at Bokuto. “Untrained Magics are dangerous.”

“We have this under control right now–”

“We? You mean I do,” Akaashi interrupted. “And I don’t have anything under control. I can barely control Shou-chan’s foresight. I haven’t had to deal with his life magic yet, but I’m sure that will be even harder. I need to work hard to keep up with him.”

“Everyone’s worried about you. You never go to the store anymore. You’re barely home too. Shouyou spends so much time with Oikawa-kun and Suga-kun, he’s probably starting to think you hate him.” Bokuto’s fists were clenched and Akaashi was pretty sure he was shaking, though he couldn’t be sure if it was because of anger or sadness. “We just want the best for you.”

“None of you understand!” Akaashi’s voice completely lost the disinterested evenness he’d started this argument with, jumping up loud enough that he hoped Shouyou wouldn’t be woken up. Even with that worry, he was able to do very little to regulate his volume as his words completely got away from him. “This is what I do! This is what I can do!”

“No one wants you to do this.”

“You told me I could do it! Were you lying?”

“What?” Bokuto shook his head. “This isn’t what I meant.”

“You never thought I could do it,” Akaashi said, his voice suddenly quiet as he gritted his teeth and looked down at his feet. “Why would anyone think I could? You’ve all just been humoring me this whole time. You all thought it would be fun to let me pretend to be an Owl for once who actually knows anything about charms! Won’t it be fun to watch him pretend he can do anything other than regurgitate the charms he was taught?”

“Keiji, listen to me!” Bokuto shouted, a pained look on his face. “I don’t know why you think I don’t want the best for you, but I’m not trying to insult you. I really don’t know much about magic or charms or any of that. I really did believe in you, but if this is what charms do to you then– then–” Bokuto closed his eyes tightly, a few tears escaping onto his cheeks. “I don’t want to see you this way.”

Akaashi didn’t know what to say or how to respond, his anger continuing to spike upwards. He didn’t know where it all came from. He didn’t know why he was so angry.

Focusing on that feeling, Akaashi realized he’d lost control over his ability and his charms were slowly being pushed to their breaking point.

Akaashi should have known that he wasn’t strong enough to control his ability. It had all been a joke he’d played on himself, one that pretended that he had any control over his world.

Akaashi felt so much like he was out of control that he wasn’t surprised when he felt himself whip around, pulling his notebook into his arms before he turned and headed toward the door.

“Keiji?”

“If you don’t want to see me, then you don’t have to.”

The door closed behind him and Akaashi found he had no idea how he managed to screw up everything so wonderfully.

\---

Akaashi didn’t end up that far from home, in a darkened park that Akaashi passed to get to the shop. He had his legs up on the bench, his knees pulled to his chest while his notebook laid on the ground in front of him, where he’d thrown it upon his arrival.

He realized that he didn’t exactly deserve to be crying since he was the entire reason for his own issues, but that always seemed to be how things ended with him. He always ended up alone, crying about something that was, objectively, his fault.

As his eyes finally dried, Akaashi looked up from his knees to take a look at the few stars he could see while letting his legs slide off the bench, feeling like maybe he was getting too old to curl up like that.

Growing up, Akaashi hadn’t spent much time looking at the stars because that would mean going outside at night. Nighttime was for studying and sleeping, not for galavanting about, staring at the sky. But he could remember a night in high school when he got in what was probably his only fight with his mother before he moved out.

He’d run away from home and he’d ended up in a park, only for Oyama Isshin to show up to talk to him. It had been the first time he’d seen Oyama since elementary school and yet it was like no time had passed at all. They’d talked and looked at the stars and it had felt okay for a little while.

The stars here were fewer and fainter, but they were the same stars nonetheless. Bright lights could dampen something, but that didn’t make it less true or real.

Bokuto shone like a star—like the sun, even—and he managed to block out the parts of Akaashi that he wanted to ignore, but they were still there.

He was mean and cold. He was uncompromising and sharp-tongued. He was so much like Akaashi Naoko that it was surprising that he hadn’t managed to screw up Shouyou already. Akaashi just had to hope that it was in his genes because then Shouyou would be saved from what it apparently meant to be a true Akaashi.

He would never escape his mother because every day he turned more and more into her.

Before his mind could dive any deeper, Akaashi became aware of someone close by wearing enough charms to probably be a Magic. As they got closer, Akaashi realized he recognized the charms and turned to look at the person, surprised to find him there.

“There you are, Keiji-kun,” Hayakawa Hikaru said, sounding like this was the most normal place for him to have happened upon Akaashi. “Glad you’re okay… and still in town.”

“Uncle…” Akaashi groped around his mind for words he could say, but found nothing useful. He still tried to say something. “How’d you find me?”

“I was lucky. I just happened to be looking for you around here.”

“Ah,” Akaashi turned to look back at the ground. “Bokuto called you.”

“Of course.” Hikaru came closer, sitting down next to Akaashi. “He was so worried. And maybe a little angry, but definitely worried.”

“He deserves more than me,” Akaashi said simply, hoping he didn’t sound like he was fishing for pity.

He honestly was sure that Bokuto deserved better than Akaashi seemed to always give. Bokuto had literally only dated one person before Akaashi and Akaashi was pretty sure he would have been better off if they had stayed together.

“You’re such an Akaashi,” Hikaru said, leaning back.

“Huh?” Akaashi looked up at Hikaru, finding him seemingly at peace in this moment.

“I don’t just mean Big Sister Akaashi. You’re like Makoto-kun and you’re like Natsuki. Every single one of you is perfectionist, workaholic idiots.”

“Wha–?” Akaashi was lost for words, unused to this type of bluntness from Hikaru.

Seeming to sense his confusion, Hikaru turned and smiled a little at Akaashi.

“Chi-chan told me that the best way to get through to you was by being blunt. I should have figured that out myself, but for some reason, I think of Chi-chan as more of an Akaashi that you sometimes. You always seemed… calmer than the rest of the family. But I didn’t watch you grow up like I watched Chi-chan grow up. I didn’t grow up alongside you like I did with your mother and uncle and Natsuki.”

“I’ve always known I’m just like them,” Akaashi said quietly. “That’s why I’m here. I was mean to Kou and then I ran away because he was worried about me. I treated him like a nuisance. I’m just like my mother.”

“That’s not what I mean.” Hikaru sighed. “What I mean is that you work too hard. And you have abysmal judgment about people’s ability, especially your own. I don’t just mean you or your mother. I really am talking about Makoto-kun and Natsuki too.

“I was sect-less, but my family had money so we lived in the same area that you grew up in. I went to the same schools as you and your mother. That’s how I met Natsuki. Something your mother would never have told you is about the running for the apprentice to Master Akaashi.”

“Uncle Makoto was supposed to take over, right?”

“Yes, but he wasn’t the first choice, your mother was.”

“Huh?” That wasn’t something Akaashi had heard before.

“She was supposed to be apprenticed to her father just like he had been to his father and his father had been apprenticed to his mother. Master Charmer isn’t technically a family position, but the Akaashi family has held the position for a long time.”

“What… What happened?”

“She didn’t measure up,” Hikaru said simply. “She was raised just like you were, it’s where she learned it. But even with a strict adherence to studies, she couldn’t do enough. I remember how bad it got in high school because Master Akaashi moved his focus to Makoto. She was still convinced she could prove herself.” Hikaru shook his head. “She nearly worked herself to death and it still wasn’t enough. Natsuki wasn’t as bad as her sister, but even she took things to the extremes. Makoto-kun did too sometimes, just only with things he cared about, which didn’t include being master charmer.”

“Why are you telling me this?”

“My point is that working yourself to death isn’t going to get you anywhere, but that I know where you’re coming from. Maybe it’s in your upbringing or maybe it’s in your blood, but either way, Akaashi’s can’t seem to help but work too hard. You need someone there to tell you to slow down. I did that for Natsuki and Koutarou-kun does that for you. Your aunt Kasumi-san does that for Makoto-kun. Naoko-san… she never learned how to slow down and she put those same pressures back onto you. She thought she’d failed and so the only way to redeem herself was through you. It’s not right and it doesn’t make anything she did reasonable…” Hikaru sighed. “You should listen to Koutarou-kun and you should realize that saying you don’t deserve him does a disservice not just to yourself but also to him. He chose this too and he knew what he was doing.”

Akaashi was quiet, uncertain how to respond to the new information he’d been given. Or the gentle reprimand he’d been given.

“Natsuki sometimes said that to me. That she didn’t deserve me and… when she disappeared, it just made me angry. It made me wonder if that’s why she left. It made me question everything. It made me wonder if I’d misunderstood and that hadn’t been meant as a good thing. So don’t do that to Koutarou-kun. He doesn’t need that kind of stress.”

“But–”

“No but’s,” Hikaru said firmly. “Go home and apologize to him. Then get some rest. You really look terrible.”

Akaashi sighed, looking down at the ground. “Okay.”

“You’ve done well and you’ve let some people help you with this charm problem, but I can tell you still think you’re the only one who can do this,” Hikaru said, revealing just how much he knew about Akaashi’s current situation. “But I think it might be time to look for help closer to home… Or further from home, I guess.”

“What do you mean?” Akaashi asked, afraid Hikaru was going to suggest he contact his mother.

“Makoto-kun may not be a master charmer, but he got almost as close as you did. And he’s still doing charm research so he might be a good resource.”

“This isn’t exactly his area of research, though.”

“Maybe not, but he might know someone or something.” Hikaru stood. “You’re too slow to ask for help. That’s true in everything you do. It’s time to grow up a little and realize that you don’t know everything and that’s okay because someone, somewhere knows what you don’t.”

Of course, Akaashi knew Hikaru was right. He knew what he was saying was sensible. But he’d been taught that if he couldn’t do something or didn’t do something, nobody was going pick up the slack for him. If he wanted something, he had to go and get it and this didn’t seem to be any different.

“Uncle, it’s just, this is the thing I’m supposed to be good at. It's the thing I’m supposed to know about.” Akaashi shook his head, wishing he could believe in that things Hikaru was saying. “Charms are something I’m actually good at and yet I can’t figure this out. I've asked for help. I've worked with other people. What if this is hopeless? I just want Shou-chan to have a normal life.”

“He probably won't have a normal life,” Hikaru said plainly. “But that's not always a bad thing. Not every abnormal life is bad. Maybe he'll have hardships to overcome. Maybe things will turn out to be easy for him. We don't know, but as long as you're there for him, things will be okay.”

Akaashi squeezed his eyes shut, not wanting to cry again.

“I still have no clue what I'm doing and I'm so afraid all the time. I'm afraid for Shou-chan and I guess I'm afraid of him. Of his power. I can barely control my ability and he has so much more power, how can he be expected to figure this out without hurting himself or someone else?”

“He'll be okay.” Hikaru walked back over to Akaashi, putting his hands on Akaashi's shoulders. “You and Kotarou-kun will make sure of it.”

“I’m afraid. I feel like I’ve been afraid every single day of my entire life.”

“That’s okay. Keiji-kun, you’re allowed to be afraid. When Chi-chan was first born, I was afraid I’d never be good enough for her. When Natsuki disappeared, I was afraid I’d never be able to take care of Chi-chan on my own. When her ability manifested I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to teach her what she needed to know. It’s okay to be afraid as long as you don’t let it stop you from being a father and a husband and a friend. As long as that fear doesn’t stop you from being you.” Hikaru pulled Akaashi into a sudden hug, Akaashi frozen and stiff as he did. “We’re all here for you because we love you. I know you can do this so don’t let anything stop you, especially not yourself.”

“Okay, Uncle, I won’t.” Akaashi wrapped his arms around Hikaru, returning the hug with a tight one of his own. “Thank you. For everything.”

\---

Akaashi opened the door slowly and was unsurprised when Bokuto appeared at the door, the look in his eyes a mix of relief, anger, and sadness.

“Keiji, thank god you’re okay.” Bokuto let out a long breath. “You scared me.”

“I’m sorry.” Akaashi’s voice was small and quiet and try as he might, he couldn’t force it to project any louder. “I don’t know why I keep doing this to you. I’m really sorry. I know you’re probably still angry and I don’t blame you.”

Without a word, Bokuto embraced Akaashi, a hand finding its way into Akaashi’s hair.

“Of course I’m angry, you idiot,” Bokuto told him, sounding more solid than Akaashi had heard him in a while. “I can’t believe I married such an idiot.”

Akaashi laughed and found there were suddenly tears in his eyes. He closed his eyes and leaned forward, burying his face in Bokuto’s shoulder.

“How do you put up with me?”

“Because I love you.”

“I’m sorry I always do this. I feel like all I ever do is hurt you.”

“Keiji…” Bokuto sighed. “Yah, you hurt me. You’ve hurt me in the past. But it’s not nearly as often as you think. In the time we’ve known each other you’ve done so much more good than hurt. This was stupid and mean, but it happens and I’m not about to hate you because of something you said while you were sleep deprived and stressed. You just need to listen to me when I say there’s no reason for you to do this all on your own.”

Bokuto leaned his chin on Akaashi’s shoulder, seemingly not ready to let go of Akaashi.

“I really don’t understand all this magic stuff. It’s really complicated and confusing and no matter how much you explain to me, I feel like there’s always more I don’t understand. I know I can’t really help you with that kind of stuff, but I can still be there for you if you let me be.”

“I swear I’m going to try harder from now on. I mean to be a good husband. And… And I think it’s time to find a new therapist. I really want to be better.”

“Let’s be better together,” Bokuto recommended. “Now, let’s go to bed. We can talk more in the morning.”

Akaashi nodded, the motion difficult in his current position but understandable nonetheless.

“That sounds nice.”

\---

When Akaashi pushed open the door to the antique store, Hikaru looked up from the counter, looking about to great Akaashi. Before he could, though, he must have registered it was Akaashi and so he he said nothing for a moment, simply looking surprised.

“Keiji-kun, it’s good to see you again. How are you feeling?”

“Better… much better. Thank you for the other night,” Akaashi found he couldn’t force himself to look at Hikaru. “I thought going back to work for a little would be a good break for my mind.”

“That’s a pretty good idea,” Hikaru said, a smile in his voice as he started to rummage around for something.

Finally, just as Akaashi looked up to see what he was doing, Hikaru pulled out a notebook that Akaashi was sure was his charms notebook. He hadn’t even noticed he’d left it at the park, but he was glad Hikaru had found it. Even if he hadn’t noticed yet—he’d been taking a break from the work on Shouyou’s charm—he would have eventually and losing that notebook would have killed him.

“You left this the other night and I took a look at it. I think I know what’s wrong with the charm.”

“Thank y– Wait?” Akaashi blinked at Hikaru. “Really?”

“Yeah, come here.” Akaashi practically ran to the counter when Hikaru had opened the notebook to Akaashi’s most recent work. “You’re using a command charm right now to connect the absorption and void charms, but I think that’s the wrong way to go about it. Absorption charms don’t need to be commanded, they allow magic to flow naturally down the path of least resistance.”

“Okay,” Akaashi said, “What do you recommend.”

“When you first started, you tried using communication charms to modify the absorption and void charms. I think you should go back to that.”

“We tested that charm, though. The absorption charm couldn’t absorb enough magic to replace what the void charm was using.”

“I think I know why,” Hikaru pointed at the void charm that Akaashi had been using. “Why are you using a void charm?”

“To stop Shou-chan’s magic.”

“And does that work? I mean, when you use one normally?”

“Sure it does, at least until the charm breaks–” Akaashi paused, realizing what Hikaru was getting at. “The absorption charm has nothing to absorb.”

“That’s what I’m thinking. The only time it can absorb any magic is after the void charm breaks.”

“So,” Akaashi grabbed a pencil from the counter, writing out a new charm. “We should use a dampening charm instead.” Akaashi looked up at Hikaru with a smile. “Do you think it’ll work?”

“Only one way to find out.”

\---

“So,” Kuroo looked at Akaashi with a raised eyebrow, “What’s next?”

“Here,” Akaashi said, handing Kuroo a charmed bracelet. “I finally finished all these, so all we have to do now is test them. You each have a different percentage dampening. I want to see which is the strongest.”

“Wouldn’t it be better to have Chinatsu-chan and Oikawa-kun test all of them?” Suga asked. “No offense, Kuroo-kun and Kenma-kun, but the three of us aren’t the strongest Magics.”

“Suga-kun is right,” Kenma said. “Akaashi-kun, you should test one too.”

“I just finished making this one,” Akaashi said, handing a bracelet to Oikawa. “It took too much out of me to be able to properly test anything. And don’t worry, this won’t be the only test, just the first one. Anything that makes it through this test will move on to round two.”

Kuroo laughed, slipping his bracelet on and looking closely at the written charm. Akaashi had decided to use engravings for the final charm’s runes so that it would be easier to recharm if necessary, but for now the test charms were just written using chalk paint.

“Seventy percent, you must have a lot of faith in me,” Kuroo laughed again. “You know, Akaashi-kun, I’m surprised you didn’t make a spreadsheet of data to keep track of these tests of yours.”

Akaashi didn’t respond, mostly because he did have spreadsheet where he was going to document the information he gathered.

“Oikawa-kun, you have a 90% dampening charm. Chi-chan, yours is 80%. Kenma-kun, you have 60 and Suga-kun, you have 50.”

“Okay,” Suga smiled widely, “Let’s get started.”

\---

Akaashi knocked on the door to apartment number 703 and hoped he was at the right place. For a moment, he was panicking that he’d been wrong, but then the door opened onto a tired-looking young man, his light-hair a mess like he’d just woken up despite it being ten in the morning on a Tuesday.

“Ah, Akaashi-kun,” Hanamaki said with a smile. “This is pretty surprising.”

“I got your address from Oikawa-kun,” Akaashi explained.

“That wasn’t the surprising thing,” Hanamaki said with a snort. “I meant you being here.”

“Well, the charm I made you when you first got here wasn’t very strong,” Akaashi explained. “And while I was doing research for Shou-chan’s charm, I came across some information about how best to stop foresight altogether. With Shou-chan, I don’t want to do that just yet, since being cut off from magic like that might upset him at such a young age. But, for you…”

“You found a way to stop the visions?” Hanamaki asked before seeming to realize they were still standing in his doorway. “Sorry. Come in.”

“Thank you,” Akaashi said, slipping his shoes off. “I’m trying to figure out if there’s a way to incorporate absorption into this charm to make it last long, but I haven’t figured that out yet. But, I made this an engraved charm, so you can recharm it without my help.”

“Thank you, Akaashi-kun… Or, maybe I should be calling you Akaashi-sensei.”

“Please don’t, I’ve never been master charmer.” Akaashi shook his head. “If I figure out a better charm, I’ll make sure you know.”

“Thank you,” Hanamaki repeated as footsteps could be heard approaching them for a few seconds before a platinum blond head of hair appeared from behind a couch, followed by the rest of the boy that Akaashi was pretty sure was named Shigeru. “This is more than I could have asked for.”

Shigeru was peeking out from behind the couch, looking at Akaashi with curious eyes. After a few moments, Akaashi smiled at the boy, waving at him, which seemed to scare him as he slipped back behind the couch. Hanamaki seemed to notice what was happening, but he sat down without acknowledging the boy.

“I’m just happy to help,” Akaashi told him, taking a seat across from Hanamaki.

“It’s more than your grandfather ever did,” Hanamaki told him as Shigeru reappeared, slowly walking around the couch before pulling himself up next to Hanamaki. “I’m glad you could join us, Shigeru-kun. Do you remember meeting Akaashi-san?”

“Hello, Akaashi-san,” Shigeru said quietly, looking at Akaashi with a strange sort of interest.

“Hello, Shigeru-kun,” Akaashi said before looking back at Hanamaki. “It sounds like my grandfather did a lot.”

“He never tried to improve the kind of charms he gave me. He gave me a void charm and that was that. He never looked for a different kind of charm that would work better or last long.” Hanamaki shook his head. “And he didn’t have to. Neither did you. But, thank you. I want to be able to stay this time. I don’t want to run anymore. I mean, the boys aren’t voids like Issei, so I’d have to run from them too.”

Hanamaki looked down at Shigeru, love in his eyes that Akaashi recognized. It was the same look that Akaashi was sure he had when he thought about how happy he was to have Shouyou in his life.

“I know I’m not old, but I think I’m too old to run anymore.”

“Yeah,” Akaashi agreed with a smile. “I think I know what you mean.”

\---

After their first test had come a second and now was a third, with the charms narrowed down to either 60 percent or 70 percent dampening. To test it better, Akaashi had also made a 65 percent dampening charm, hoping to get the best results.

Chinatsu had the 70 percent charm and Oikawa the 60 percent one. Akaashi had made these earlier and so he held the 65 percent charm, wondering if he was really strong enough to be testing these. He would have much rather called in help from one of Oikawa or Suga’s friends. He’d even had settled for asking one of Kenma and Kuroo’s friends for help as much as the Cat Sect tended to make him uneasy in a way he couldn’t quite put his finger on.

They weren’t bad people, but he really felt wary around them. He suspected it was because he was vaguely aware that while they seemed on the outside like an average magical sect, they held many very powerful Magics.

“Chinatsu, you start,” Akaashi said, watching her closely with Suga and Kenma, who were both helping him by using their sensing abilities to try and read the person’s magic levels. “Don’t do anything too crazy, just in case.”

Chinatsu laughed and put on the charmed bracelet Akaashi had given her before pausing to breath. Then, holding out her hand she started, blank-face, waiting for something—most likely for fire to appear in her hand—to happen.

While outwardly it looked like nothing was happening, Akaashi was watching his charm closely. As Chinatsu use her ability, the charm began to burn. As he stared, Akaashi felt himself falling into a near-trance, his mind seeming to be sucked in by the runes on the bracelet. Suddenly he felt like he could feel each rune working together to dampen and drain Chinatsu’s magic. The dampening rune was burning brightly and at the last moment, Akaashi realized it was too bright and then the charm broke, going cold as fire appeared in Chinatsu’s hand.

“Damn,” Kuroo said. “Chinatsu-san, you’re kind of scary, you know?”

“Thanks,” Chinatsu smirked at Kuroo before turning to look at Akaashi. “So?”

“It was the wrong balance,” Akaashi said before Kenma or Suga could speak. “There was too much strain on the dampening charm and not enough energy from the drain charm.”

“That’s specific,” Oikawa commended. “Any more information?”

“I think the 60 percent will be too weak of a dampening charm,” Akaashi predicted. “I think the 65 percent charm will actually be the best option.”

“Well, only one way to find out,” Oikawa told him with a smile, turning to the potted plant he’d brought to use his magic on.

Again, Akaashi focused on the charm, unsure if this was normal for people who knew a lot about charms or if he’d spent too much time with them. Maybe he’d become hyper-aware of charms because he always needed to know when his own charms were about to break.

Either way, he was able to read these charms he’d made and when he focused on the absorption charm he could tell it was absorbing as much as it could. Still, some was leaking through and affecting the plant enough for it to begin growing slowly but noticeably. Then Oikawaw must have been pushing harder because suddenly the absorption charm seemed to start to burn hotter and hotter until, finally, the charm broke and, again, went cold.

“So?” Oikawa asked, turning to look at Akaashi.

“It was too much for the absorption charm, it overloaded it.”

“Honestly, Akaashi-kun, you’re pretty amazing,” Suga commented. “How can you tell all that?”

“I guess… I can just feel it?” Akaashi shrugged. “I don’t know how to explain it. I mean, I’ve always been able to read charms well, I just kind of focused on the runes this time instead of the whole charm.”

“Weird,” Chinatsu said, walking up behind Akaashi and ruffling his hair, earning her a glare from Akaashi that she only laughed at. “Your turn.”

Honestly, Akaashi wanted nothing more than to ask someone else to do this. But, he reasoned, he might be able to feel the runes even better if they were affecting his magic. He’d always been able to tell a lot about the charms he wore.

For a moment Akaashi wasn’t even sure what to do to manifest his ability, so unused to using it purposefully that it was strange to just think about trying. He settled on trying to make those around him feel calm, knowing he’d need to be as calm as possible anyway if he wanted to use his ability and also focus on the runes.

For a few moments, Akaashi didn’t feel anything from his ability or from the runes but then the runes came alive and it felt for a moment like they were going to burst. Then they evened out as the absorption charm captured the part of his ability that was being allowed to slip through the dampening charm. It fed back into the charm and he pushed harder, this time allowing a negative emotion—fear—to infect his ability. He found that his projection of negative emotions tended to be much stronger than positive or neutral ones, so when the charm still held strong, Akaashi left relief wash over him as a smile spread across his lips.

For a moment there was silence and then he looked up at his friends and family, unable to stop smiling.

“I think it’s going to work.”

\---

Finding Date Daycare and Preschool was a godsend and Akaashi was so glad for it. It was run by three friends who’d grown up in the Date Sect, meaning they were magic aware. Despite that, they were extremely chill about most magical things due in part to their location. Much like the Cat Sect, they were used to living among Modes and so they had a much different temperament from sects like the Owls and the Crows.

The other reason for their calmness was the distinct oddness of their sect. For reasons nobody had been able to figure out, the ‘gene’ that controlled magical ability was different in the Date Sect from all other magical sects, at least in this country.

Usually, the magic gene was dominant, meaning if you had even one magic parent, it was quite likely you would be a magic too. If you had two Magic parents, you had at most a 1 in 4 chance of being a Mode. However, the members of the Date Sect seemed to have a different, recessive magic gene and a dominant mode gene. It wasn’t the same as sensitivity since most of the modal Date members weren’t sensitive to magic. Instead, it just seemed to be a different gene.

This meant that, unlike in a lot of sects, magic wasn’t seen as that important. Some people had it some people didn’t. It was like brown hair versus black hair, some people had one and some people had the other and the people of the Date Sect didn’t care much either way.

The people who ran the daycare were seemed mostly to be Date Modes—Akaashi had only met two of the four people who worked there full-time, so he couldn’t say for sure—so they knew about Magic and, most likely, some of them even had Magic family. Despite that, or maybe because of it, they couldn’t care less about abilities and magic. As long as Magic kids were either in control of their abilities or properly charmed, they didn’t much care.

So, with Shouyou’s new charm—one that Akaashi had also made for Tobio, just in case—he was ready for daycare. Today would be both his and Tobio’s first days of daycare and he seemed excited even if Akaashi was sure he’d become anxious the moment they arrived at the daycare.

“I’m taking a picture!” Bokuto announced when Shouyou had finally been properly dressed in his preschool uniform that basically looked like a tiny, baggy tracksuit. It was a dark teal color that complemented Shouyou’s hair, at least according to Oikawa.

“You too, Keiji,” Bokuto insisted. “It’s his first day of school!”

“I mean, not really,” Akaashi protested even as he kneeled down need to Shouyou. “He won’t even be there all day.”

“Still counts,” Bokuto told him as he balanced his phone on the table before rushing over to join them. “Smile!”

The camera snapped a few times and then Bokuto popped up excitedly to check the pictures before showing them to Akaashi and Shouyou.

“You’re both so cute!”

Akaashi looked at the picture and smiled, looking at how Bokuto and Shouyou had smiles that seemed to match. His smile was smaller but still warm and he thought that maybe they could really be a normal family.

“You’re the cute one,” Akaashi told him. “Now, we better get going. We don’t want to keep Tobio-chan waiting.

\---

They met Daichi, Suga, and Tobio close to the school before heading there together. Despite being in strollers, Shouyou kept trying to ‘talk’ to Tobio, trying his best to crane his neck in such a way that he could see the other boy.

As they entered the school, Akaashi was surprised by how lively it was. The first time Akaashi and Daichi had visited—Suga was working and Bokuto was watching the boys—it had been a weekend so most of the kids were at home with parents. There were a few kids there, but they were mostly playing quietly or doing some task with their teacher. Today, though, even the lobby area was alive with activity. There was a parent dropping off three kids, her eyes ringed with bags that Akaashi could only image. There was a small boy crying while a daycare worker crouched in front of him, probably trying to comfort the boy.

The head teacher for the youngest kids—that was were Tobio and Shouyou would be—hadn’t been there the day Akaashi visited and so he was a little nervous about meeting him, unsure what he was like. He’d actually only met two of the owners and one of the teachers for the older kids.

The man who met them at the front was Moniwa Kaname, one of the three co-owners of the daycare. He was a slightly nervous, but generally upbeat man that smile freely even when he seemed nervous like he did now.

“Ah, Akaashi-san, Sawamura-san,” he exclaimed when he finished helping a parent sign in their child. “I’m so glad you made it.”

“Of course,” Akaashi said with a nod of his head. “This is my son and husband.”

“Nice to meet you, I’m Bokuto Koutarou,” Bokuto said with a smile as he took Shouyou out of his stroller. “And his name is Shouyou.”

“And I’m Sugawara Koushi, Daichi’s husband. This is Tobio-chan.”

“Well, it’s very nice to meet all of you,” Moniwa said with a bigger smile before his eyes wandered to someone behind them. “Aone-sensei, your new students are here.”

When Akaashi turned, he saw Moniwa was addressing the man he’d seen earlier talking to the crying boy. As he stood up straighter, Akaashi realized he was a very tall, large man with a serious face. Akaashi was surprised that he was the teacher for the youngest kids, but the boy who he’d been talking to—his hair reminded Akaashi of Bokutos, with part of it a dark brown while the rest was blond—stepped closer to the man before reaching up to grab his apron, one hand still rubbing his eyes.

Looking down at Shouyou, Akaashi was worried for a moment that he was going to be afraid of the man and he wondered what he could possibly do to rectify this situation. But then, Shouyou’s eyes went wide and he pointed at Aone.

“No eyebrows!”

“Shou-chan!” Akaashi exclaimed, mortified. “You can’t say things like. And pointing is rude!”

Another teacher appeared behind from on the rooms, laughing enough to catch Akaashi attention. He was one of the teachers Akaashi and Daichi had met the other day and Akaashi was pretty sure his name was Futakuchi. He was still laughing when he walked over to Aone—he was quite tall too—though his eyes were on Shouyou.

“I mean, he’s not wrong, right Aone-sensei?”

Aone nodded, walking over to crouch in front of Shouyou. He put out a hand and for a moment Shouyou started at him but then he reached out and gave Aone a high-five, smiling widely.

“You’re really tall! Why don’t you have eyebrows? Who’s he? What’s your name?”

Akaashi shook his head, smiling as he listened to Shouyou rattle off questions without pausing to let Aone answer, not that the man seemed that bothered by it.

“I think he’ll be alright,” Bokuto said quietly, leaning towards Akaashi to do so. “What do you think?”

Akaashi smiled and chuckled to himself.

“Yeah, I think he’ll be just fine.”

\---

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [Charm Notes](https://ko-fi.com/i/IR6R8RCQP)


	2. Jinbei

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> When Akaashi first met Bokuto, he'd never been to what was traditionally thought of as a summer festival. Owl Sect festivals were steeped in tradition and history and were serious. No goldfish catching games or kakigori or takoyaki. 
> 
> Of course, Bokuto had been quick to fix what he saw as a glaring emptiness in Akaashi's life and, for as much as the crowds had been stressful for him, Akaashi had had a great time. That first festival, in particular, had been one of the best nights of his life so far and since then, they'd always gone to that same festival, every year. 
> 
> And so Akaashi was no longer new to summer festivals, but this year was the first time he or Bokuto had gone to a festival with a toddler in tow. Or, in this case, four.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is much shorter and also much fluffier than most of the chapters in this fic will be and it was so damn fun to write. 
> 
> FYI to anyone who has been thus far disappointed with there being very little smol Hinata, this is p much the chapter with the most of him being the most charming toddler.

In the Owl Sect, there were very few fun festivals. Most of the celebrations were relatively serious or at the very least, kids weren’t exactly allowed. But most other places had plenty of festivals, especially during the summer months. 

When Akaashi had admitted to Bokuto that he’d never been to any sort of summertime festival, Bokuto had immediately jumped into action, making plans for them to go. They’d been dating for about two months at the time but Akaashi had been more than happy to let Bokuto sweep him up in a flurry of plans and preparation. Their friends had heard about it and, of course, all invited themselves, so, in the end, a group of eight headed over to one of the biggest summer festivals in town. 

Akaashi had had a lot of fun even if he had a hard time telling Bokuto and his friends that. Still, Bokuto must have understood because every summer he insisted they go and, in spite of the heat and the crowds, they always had fun. 

That festival was held in the same area every year and as it turned out, that was the area where Akaashi and Bokuto ended up buying a house. Suga and Daichi also lived in the same area, though two roads over. 

Akaashi wasn’t sure if it was the same for Bokuto, but the good memories from their many summer festivals were one of the reasons he’d really wanted to live in the area. It made him feel safe, to be surrounded by good memories of warm nights sitting together and watching fireworks while kids ran by and couples even younger than themselves walked shyly side-by-side. 

They still went every year and so Akaashi was no longer new to summer festivals, but this year was the first time he or Bokuto had gone to a festival with a toddler in tow. Or, in this case, four. 

Suga and Daichi had been too busy this year to go to the festival, with Suga needing to head home to deal with family matters and Daichi going with him, leaving Tobio with Akaashi and Bokuto. Hanamaki and Matsukawa had also been forced to go home to deal with their own issues, most of which stemmed from having disappeared for many years. They said they weren’t quite ready to bring the boys back home, not until they talked to their parents and family, so Shigeru and Akira were both staying with Oikawa and Iwaizumi. 

So, after an excited call from Oikawa, Bokuto and Akaashi’s house had been invaded by two more children and their caretakers, one of which had recently purchased four new jinbei so all four children could get dressed up for the festival. 

The jinbei that Oikawa had picked out were admittedly cute, with all four boys in a different pattern. 

Akira was dressed in a pattern of simple hexagons, the dark blue color of the fabric not particularly flashy, which fit the quiet boy. His brother was wearing a leaf pattern in a dark green color that was also muted.

For Shouyou, Oikawa had picked out a green jinbei colored similarly to the uniform that the boys wore to their daycare. The green cloth was patterned with black swallows in flight. 

Lastly, Tobio’s was blue with a white seigaiha wave pattern on it. The blue matching well with the boy’s eyes and the calming waves matched his personality. 

“They’re so perfect,” Oikawa said for the tenth time as he and Bokuto took a few more pictures of the, at this point, restless boys. “We’ll have to keep a close eye on them, otherwise someone might snatch them just because they’re so cute.”

Iwaizumi punched Oikawa lightly in the arm, “Don’t say stuff like that, you’ll scare them.” 

“I’m only kidding,” Oikawa told him with a pout. “Anyway, if anyone tried, we’d put a stop to that quickly.” 

As Oikawa and Iwaizumi continued to argue, Akaashi found his mind unhelpfully considering whether this would be a safe place for Shouyou and Tobio, given the possibility that there were still people who wanted them dead. He had no idea if there was actually anyone after them still, but it was always a possibility.

“Keiji,” Bokuto said softly, touching his arm. “Don’t worry, it’s going to be fine.”

Akaashi let out a long breath, having not realized he’d been holding in so much air. 

“I know, it’s just hard not to worry after everything else.”

“You’re right,” Bokuto agreed. “But they’ll be fine tonight, I’m sure.” 

Akaashi smiled at Bokuto, feeling more at ease, and then turned to tell Oikawa it was about time they headed out. 

\---

“Papa! Papa! Papa!” Shouyou shouted, grabbing tightly to Bokuto’s hand as he tried to drag him toward the newest thing that had drawn his eyes. “What’s that, what’s that, what’s that?” 

Bokuto laughed, scooping Shouyou up into his arms. 

“Calm down, Shouyou, the festival isn’t going anywhere,” He said through another laugh. “Now, what were you asking about?” 

“The fish! The fish!” Shouyou responded, pointing at a goldfish catching game. “What’s that? I want to eat fish!” 

Akaashi chuckled, “Shou-chan, they aren’t for eating. You catch them.” 

“Huh?” Shouyou tilted his head to the side, looking confused. After a second, he turned so he could see Tobio who was walking close to Akaashi. “Tobio-chan, what’s that?” 

Tobio looked up at Shouyou, his big eyes unblinking as he thought about Shouyou’s question.

“They’re fish.” 

Shouyou nodded and put his arms around Bokuto’s neck.

“Papa, I wanna see the fish!” 

“Okay, sweetheart, we can go look.” 

Shouyou and the boys were too young to play the game themselves, so the four adults were tasked with winning fish. Bokuto quickly broke his scoop, Shouyou letting out a cry of dismay as he did. Tobio was watching Akaashi carefully as he started at the water, planning how he could possibly catch a fish.

Iwaizumi was having a hard time of it too, breaking his scoop almost as quickly as Bokuto did. Oikawa, on the other hand, seemed to be the only one of the four who knew what he was doing. Akaashi swore the fish were swimming toward his scoop instead of away from it and just as Akaashi finally attempted to catch a fish and failed miserably, Oikawa caught his fourth goldfish.

“Don’t worry, boys,” Oikawa told the kids. “I have enough fish for all of you.” 

“Thank you Uncle!” all four of the boys responded, though with varying levels of enthusiasm from Shouyou’s near shouting down to a subdued thank you from Akira. 

“Showoff,” Akaashi said to Oikawa as they walked away, each boy happily holding a bagged goldfish in their hands. 

“What can I say? My magic might be plant-related, but animals just like Castle Sect Magics.”

“You really are a forest person,” Akaashi shot back. “After so long, I’m finally starting to understand why Kuroo-kun always calls you that.” 

“We aren’t ‘forest people’!” Oikawa argued, pouting.

Akaashi chuckled, “What even was your specialty? Farming?” 

There was a lot more differentiation within sects in the modern day but in the past, each sect had its own specialty. Some, like the Owl Sect, were very magic-focused, but others were more general. 

“Hell no, that’s the Swan Sect. We were more about forestry and forest maintenance… Wait!” Oikawa paused as Akaashi smirked at him. “No! Not like that! Hey!” He shouted as Akaashi raised his eyebrows. “We’re not forest people!” 

Akaashi laughed, unable to keep the laughter in any longer and Oikawa punched him in the arm, making Akaashi laugh harder, walking forward away from Oikawa to keep pace with Bokuto and Shouyou. Tobio followed closely behind Akaashi, looking at Oikawa as they left him sputtering. 

“Tobio-chan,” Akaashi looked down at the boy when he was finally able to get his laughter under control. “What do you want to do?”

Tobio looked around quietly for a moment before pointing at a food stall selling cotton candy. Akaashi thought about whether it would be okay to give the boys a little of the sugary treat and decided that a little wouldn’t hurt them. It wasn’t like tonight was a normal night. 

“Okay, but you can only have a little bit. Too much is bad for you.” 

Tobio nodded and Akaashi steered the group to wait in line for cotton candy. It was after they got one to share among all four boys that someone spoke behind them. 

“Akaashi Keiji. Bokuto Koutarou. Long time no see.” 

Turning, Akaashi was faced with the vaguely familiar face of someone who was surely a Magic based on the number of charms he was wearing. His short hair was blond and his eyes hooded. His cheeks were speckled with light freckles and he was looking at Akaashi and Bokuto with a look that could only be described as sly. 

He was accompanied by two people. One was a man with similarly hooded eyes but dark hair and a much more friendly appearance despite a slyness behind his eyes. The other was a woman with light brown hair and a genuinely kind look about her. 

“Sorry, who are you?” Akaashi finally asked, unable to pull the stranger’s identity from his memory. 

Looking shocked, the man's mouth opened and closed and the other man laughed, the woman looking like she was also trying not to laugh. 

“I’m Daishou Suguru,” the other man introduced, ignoring his friend’s shock. 

“I’m Yamaka Mika,” the woman introduced. “I don’t think we’ve met.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Akaashi responded hesitantly, trying his best to remember who the blond man was. After a few moments of thinking, it was Bokuto who squawked out the answer. 

“Kashi!” 

“Huh?” Akaashi along with the strangers looked at Bokuto confusedly. 

“He’s the guy who tried to steal Kashi!” 

Suddenly Akaashi realized why the face was familiar and he glared at Sakishima. 

“Oh, you mean the guy who punched you in the face and ambushed me while I was vulnerable?” 

Daishou looked at his friend with a raised eyebrow, a smirk on his face. 

“Sakishima-kun, are these the guys that gave you all that trouble back in the day?” Daishou asked.

Before Sakishima could respond, Yamaka slapped them both on the back of the head and then pushed them down so they were giving Akaashi and Bokuto a deep bow. 

“We’re sorry about the damage we caused in the past,” Yamaka said. “In the past, the Snake Sect made some unsavory choices about how we would operate.”

“Mika-chan,” Daishou complained, escaping from her forced bow. “I didn’t do anything!” 

“Suguru-kun, you had a hand in all of that and you know it,” she responded, putting her hands on her hips while she glared at Daishou. “Now both of you apologize properly.” 

“Ah, fine,” Sakishima said, caving easily and turning to talk to Akaashi and Bokuto. “I am sorry about all that unpleasantness.”

“Unpleasantness is putting a little mildly,” Akaashi told him, crossing his arms. “You gave Kou a black eye all because of a charm. It wasn’t even that good of a charm.” 

“Oh, don’t sell yourself short, Akaashi-sensei,” Daishou said. “Your charms are well known around here and they have been for a while. I was actually hoping to meet you so this is a good chance.” 

“The ‘sensei’ isn’t necessary,” Akaashi told him, shifting uncomfortably. “I’m not a master charmer.” 

“Maybe not, but from what I heard, you made Senior Charmer when you were still in high school.” 

“And where did you hear that?”

“I have my sources.” Daishou’s eyes wandered over Tobio and Shouyou, his smile unsettling Akaashi, who pushed Tobio further behind him. “I’d say you deserve to be called sensei at least.”

“I’d prefer you didn’t. Those ranks mean very little outside the Owl Sect and I’m far outside the sect these days.” 

Daishou laughed, “I’ve heard.”

“You’ve heard a lot of things.”

“We have a lot of eyes and ears,” Daishou told him with a shrug. “Moving on from that, you should know that it’s thanks to you that we realized our path would lead only to darkness.”

When Akaashi only blinked at him in silence, Daishou continued. 

“When The Sensitives split, the only people who still wanted to work with us were the remaining three and, quite grudgingly, the revived Holy Light. Some of the higher-ups in the Snake Sect were willing to overlook their aim to kill two babies, but most of us weren’t and we realized if we wanted to survive, we’d have to change with the times. No more stealing charms or attacking Sensitives. We’ve turned over a new leaf. Now we’re more… middlemen. Getting charms into the hands of people who can’t make them or can’t make them well enough.”

“Really?” Akaashi didn’t trust Daishou but he also felt like he was probably telling the truth. “Isn’t that quaint.” 

“We were hoping to strike a deal to work with Hayakawa Charms. We’d mostly be buying protection charms from you, to sell of course.” 

“And how exactly would that benefit Hayakawa Charms?” 

“You would be able to sell more product and make more money. We could even arrange for you to have access to a wholesale market for basic, uncharmed items to work with. Plain rings and necklaces and the like.” Daishou took a case from his pocket and pulled out a business card, handing it over to Akaashi, who took it carefully. “We don’t want to bother your family, so if you’re interested, you can contact us.” 

“Alright, I’ll talk to Hayakawa-san.” 

“We’ll take our leave then,” Daishou bowed to Akaashi then turned to leave, Sakishima and Yamaka following him after giving bows of their own. 

“Well,” Oikawa said from behind Akaashi, where he seemed to have been waiting to jump into action if necessary. “That was strange.”

“Very strange…” Akaashi agreed, putting the business card into his own card case. “Do you think he was telling the truth about the Snake Sect changing?” 

“Hard to say,” Oikawa said with a shrug. “But he didn’t seem to be lying.” 

“Kuroo-kun would tell me not to trust a snake.” 

“And Tetsu-chan might be right, but he’s also a suspicious asshole.”

“Oikawa-kun, language,” Akaashi chided before sighing. “Well, there’s nothing we can do about it now, I guess.” 

“Not really.” Oikawa checked his watch then clapped his hands together. “Look at the time! Tobio-chan, Akira-chan, Shigeru-chan, let’s go find somewhere to watch the fireworks.” 

“What about us?” Akaashi asked, blinking as Tobio walked to stand near Oikawa. 

“You two spent some time with Shou-chan, okay? It’s his first festival.” Oikawa’s smile softened. “Aka-chan, I know how important your first festival was.” 

“Thanks, Oikawa-kun,” Akaashi said, choosing not to argue about the reemergence of Oikawa’s terrible nickname. “Have fun with your little circus. Don’t lose any of them, please.” 

“Don’t worry, nobody escapes my watchful eyes,” Oikawa told him with a laugh. “Now have some fun, okay?” 

\---

The three of them found a quiet place to sit, away from most other people. It wasn’t the best view for the fireworks show, but it was where Akaashi and Bokuto always went to watch them, ever since their first festival. 

That first festival together, Bokuto had grabbed Akaashi hand while their group was headed to find somewhere to watch the fireworks. He’d paused, letting the group disappear into the crowd before pulling out his phone to text the group apologizing for getting lost in the crowd and telling them to go on without him and Akaashi. 

Then the two of them had wandered around until they found somewhere to sit together. It was dark and quiet, with only a handful of other people, mostly couples, and Akaashi had let out a sigh of relief. He’d had fun at the festival, but the crowd had been starting to get to him. He’d never been very comfortable in crowds thanks to growing up in such a small town, so the crowds of the city would sometimes still get to him. 

They’d talked quietly about nothing in particular as they waited for the fireworks to start and just before they did, Bokuto had said ‘I love you’ for the first time. 

Before meeting Bokuto, the couple of months of dating would have felt like too fast to say those words, but Bokuto had a way of calming the part of Akaashi that wanted to push everyone away. 

And as they sat in the dark, surrounded by sticky humidity and the screaming of cicadas, Akaashi had responded with his own ‘I love you too’ and, somehow, the words didn’t scare him like he thought they would. 

This year, with Shouyou seated between then on a bench that wasn’t really made for three even if one of them was a three-year-old, Akaashi felt the anxiety of the past year melt away. This felt right. It felt good. 

“Okay, Shouyou,” Bokuto said to the boy, “It’s going to be a little loud when the fireworks happen, but you’ll be fine, they can’t hurt you.”

“Okay, Papa!” Shouyou responded with a big, toothy grin that always made him look like Bokuto. 

The first few fireworks went off and Shouyou yelped, obviously surprised by the sound. After a calming pat on the head from Bokuto and Akaashi rubbing some circles into his back, Shouyou calmed down and was suddenly transfixed by the fireworks. With each explosion, he let out some variation ‘waa!’ or ‘oo!’ while his eyes grew bigger and bigger. 

Akaashi found he could barely watch the fireworks, his eyes instead fixated on Shouyou’s amazement. He looked up and caught Bokuto’s eye, both of them smiling as they watched Shouyou become more and more amazed by the fireworks show. 

After the finale, Shouyou glanced between Bokuto and Akaashi, eyes wide and seeming to sparkle. 

“Fireworks are pretty!” 

“Yeah, they are, Sunshine,” Akaashi agreed, reaching out to ruffle Shouyou’s hair. 

“I wanna’ see more!” 

Bokuto laughed, “Sorry, that’s all for today. But we’ll come again next year.” 

“Next year? When’s that?” 

“Sooner than you think,” Akaashi assured him. “Now, why don’t we find Tobio-chan and the others?” 

“Yeah!” Shouyou agreed, jumping up. “Did Tobio-chan see-ed the fireworks?” 

“Yeah, he saw them,” Akaashi told him as he and Bokuto followed behind an excited Shouyou. “I’m sure he thought they were really pretty too.”

“Of course he liked them! They were cool!”

Akaashi was a little worried the loudness of the fireworks would be too much for Tobio, who seemed to be a bit sensitive to loud noises, but Shouyou’s confidence made him feel more at ease. Shouyou was probably right, Tobio would be fine. And even if he wasn’t okay, he had plenty of people around him who could help him feel better.

“You know,” Akaashi said to Bokuto, “I’m starting to understand what my mother was always saying about doing things for the sect.”

“Huh?”

“Well, we’re all like a little sect. You and me and Oikawa-kun and Suga-kun and Kuroo-kun… Sure, most of us have our own sects, but… We’re sort of like a sect of our own and, you know, I would do just about anything for our little sect. So, maybe I understand what she always meant. I always thought I didn’t agree with her about doing things for the sect, but actually I think I just never agreed with what she thought was good for the sect.” 

“Hmm,” Bokuto thought for a moment. “Maybe I see what you mean. Like, maybe you’ve been doing what’s best for the Owl Sect since you were little, your mother just didn’t know it was actually good.” 

“Yeah, kind of,” Akaashi said before laughing a little. “Then again, maybe it’s just the heat getting to me.” 

“Maybe,” Bokuto said, taking a few steps so he could scoop Shouyou into his arms, making the boy giggle. He swung him onto his shoulders then used one of his arms to hold onto the boy’s leg while he slung the other across Akaashi’s shoulders. “But maybe what you’re talking about is simply love.” 

“That’s not a bad point,” Akaashi agreed. “Afterall, I do love you both more than anything.” 

“You’re such a big sap,” Bokuto told him. “But, of course, I love you both too.” 

“I love you the most!” Shouyou said from atop Bokuto. “I love you this much!” 

Shouyou spread his arms out for a moment, looking matter-of-fact before he realized letting go of Bokuto made him really unsteady and he quickly wrapped his arms back around Bokuto’s head. 

“Well, I love you this much,” Bokuto said, letting go of Shouyou and Akaashi to stretch his arms out. 

“Papa!” Shouyou squealed, grasping tighter to Bokuto who just laughed and put a steadying hand back onto Shouyou’s leg. “No fair, Papa, you’re big!” 

“You’ll be big too,” Akaashi told him. “Then you can show us how much you love us.” 

“I’m drawing a picture for you. To show you!” Shouyou insisted. “Because I love you so much.”

Akaashi couldn’t help but smile even wider, wanting to grab Shouyou and hug him tightly. 

“Well, I think I love both of you the most,” he insisted. “Because you’re both amazing.” 

They continued to play-argue about who loved the other two more as they walked back to the festival. Surrounded by the crowds and the lights and the constant voices around them, Akaashi realized he felt warm and safe and like he never wanted this to end. 

He loved his family, his sect, his home and that was enough for him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been taking me so long to post new stuff, but you know how life is. I'm always working on some writing, but finishing stuff is hard. Also, I'm moving in about two weeks, GM-ing a tabletop game for the first time ever in a week, and trying my best to memorize a Japanese speech for work... So, that's to say, who knows when stuff will come out, but it is being worked on. 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading and leaving kudos and commenting! It means the world to me <3

**Author's Note:**

> This will be a slow updating fic, but a lot of the chapters will be quite long (like this first one) since most of them can be read as standalone fics. They're grouped together mostly because there will be some multi-chapter arcs. 
> 
> I don't know when the next chapter will be up, but I wanted to update this AU There's also a chance that the next series update will be an unrelated fic, but that's one of the other reason I wanted to group this into one fic. I think of this as the childhood part of this fic (in relation to the child characters). 
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!


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